Servanthood of Jesus 2

SERVANTHOOD OF JESUS SERIES

SERVANTHOOD OF JESUS - PART II

Lets turn to Phil. 2: 9 "Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name". Notice the word "therefore" - therefore God has also highly exalted Our Lord Jesus Christ. When we see the word therefore, we have to consider the verses before. The reason why God exalted Jesus is based on verse 7 and verse 8 that is written here for us - "But made Himself of no reputation taking the form of a servant and coming in the likeness of man and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the Cross."

So Jesus Christ made Himself of no reputation - that Greek word is kenoo or emptied - He emptied Himself. He emptied Himself of his omnipresence; He emptied Himself of His omniscience His all knowing; He emptied Himself of His all-powerful omnipotence. He made Himself of no reputation and He took the form of a servant and coming in the likeness of Man. He can come in the likeness of man and take the form of a King but He came in the likeness of man, at the same time He took on the form of a servant. This is the reason why God chose to bring Him forth in a manger - that He be born in a manger. He humbled Himself. Jesus is the only one who could choose where He was to be born and we have to meditate on the fact that He chose a manger. What will you choose if you have been able to choose where you are to be born?

Very few of us would choose a manger but He chose, He ordained it because He has a purpose involved to show us the humility of Jesus. Remember verse 6 who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. Now that word to understand it, it means that when Jesus, even though He was in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. In other words He did not seize equality with God by force, by robbing, by grasping it instantly. He came into the position with God, by verse 7 & verse 8, and verse 9 - God restored Him. Notice verse 9 - God highly exalted Him therefore. Remember when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane He was praying, He said "Father grant unto Me the glory which I had with You before the world was." So Jesus had the glory of God upon His life before He came down. He was known as the Word and the Word became flesh; He came down and He took the form of flesh, humbled Himself, walked the road of humility in order that when He is exalted, He bring back a part of mankind with Him.

Lets illustrate here; let's take this Bible to represent Jesus in all His glory. He was the Word - the Word made flesh. Now before Jesus came down to this earth He was the Word with God. The Word was with God and the Word was God. Before the beginning was, the Word was, the Father was, the Son was and the Holy Spirit was. The name of Jesus was given only when He manifested on this earth. Somehow when Jesus Christ came down, although He looked in the likeness of man way before He came - in Luke Chapter 1 and Matthew Chapter 1, remember Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego - remember the three Jewish boys when they were put in the fiery furnace, Nebuchadnezzar saw someone with them and he said the person who was with them was in the likeness of the Son of God. It represented a human being but Jesus had not come in the flesh yet. You see why does Jesus look like a man then. You got it the wrong way - Jesus didn't look like a man, man looked like Jesus. In the beginning God said "I make man after My likeness and image. So it is not that God has hands like us, God has eyes like us and God has an image like us. It is not that way. It is the opposite way. We have eyes like God. You read the Bible, it talks about God's eyes - it run to and fro - talk about God's hands. It is we who are like God.

I believe that the Father has a spiritual form and shape. I also believe that Jesus has a form and a shape. Some people don't believe that God is three persons, but God is three persons because if you go to Heaven you will find the Father's throne and Jesus' throne separate. They are separate persons. And I believe that the Holy Spirit also has a form and their form, it looks to us in the image of man but actually it is the opposite way - we were originally in the image of God. However, after the fall the image has been changed. Lets represent this Bible to be Jesus. Jesus was in the beginning with God. In the beginning was God. Right in the beginning before all time happened was God the Father, the Word and Holy Spirit. The name Jesus was not been given to the second person of the Godhead. The name of Jesus before He came down was the Word - His name is the Word. In the Book of Revelation when He comes down again He will be known as the Word. His name is written as the Word. Jesus’ name was the Word. It is quite hard to comprehend that His name is that way but wait till the Father God speaks to you and then He will say - I AM the I AM - that is even more confusing. So just hold it there for a moment and accept it as a fact.

In spiritual life you have to accept before you understand. You don't understand before you accept. You have to believe before you understand - you don't understand and then you believe. You have to accept and receive by faith first and then God gives you the revelation and understanding. So in the beginning, John Chapter 1, verse 1, was the Word. The Word has no human flesh or human kind yet. God made human kind of the earth. There was nothing of man in heaven. All men were right down on the earth. So God was up there, the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit and all through generations He was known as the Word, the Word, the Word, the Word. So one day in God's fullness of time, the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit decided to reach down to man and so They all three worked together. The Father plans, the Holy Spirit is the force by which the things took place. So God sends an angel and the angel came to Mary and says "Mary, thou art highly favored, thou art beloved - you are highly favored because God has chosen you of all the people. So God created in Mary's womb the Body for Jesus. The Body was created first before the Spirit of Jesus came into that Body. Just to clarify that you read the book of Hebrews 10: 5 Therefore when He came into the world, He said sacrifice and offering you did not desire but a body you have prepared for me. So you notice the word there - Body. A Body was prepared in Mary’s womb. Mary was the incubator that God placed a Body

inside. She was just an instrument by which Jesus manifest to this earth. The Holy Spirit came upon Mary. Mary asked the Angel Gabriel - How can these things be for I know no man; and the angel said, ”The Holy Spirit shall overshadow you.” So you see Jesus here, the Word is here, the Father is there, the Holy Spirit comes down and overshadows Mary and create a Body - Hebrews 10, verse 5 - He created a Body. When that Body was created, everything completed, and that was a small Body that was created, a cell but that was sufficient - in the spirit world that was sufficient.

Jesus the Word came by the power of the Holy Spirit and emptied Himself. What you read in Philippians, Chapter 2, verse 6, 7 and 8 - He emptied Himself; verse 7 says He made Himself of no reputation. Some version says - He emptied Himself; the Greek word is the kenosis of Christ. He completely emptied Himself. He took off His omnipresence, He took off His omnipotence and He took off His omniscience. That is why when He comes down here and took off omniscience (which means to know everything) He does not know anything anymore. Omnipotence means all powerful. When Jesus took off His omnipotence, when Jesus comes down it means that He is no more all powerful - anytime He needs the power He needs the Holy Spirit, like you and me. And when Jesus took off His omnipresence He could not be present in many places at the same time, He can only be present at one place at one time - He became limited.

So Jesus became the Word - in John 1 verse 14, The Word was made flesh. Where originally you cannot see the Word, now you could see the Word; you can see the form. The Word has been made flesh. When Jesus comes upon this earth and the Word was made flesh, here is Jesus and the Word, and He moves about on this earth, He humbled Himself. Every time He needs to do a healing He need the Holy Spirit to come upon Him. He was in human flesh; the Word was in human flesh. Apostle John understood this - in 1 John, Chapter 1, verse 1, he said that He is the Word, He is the life of which we have handled, we have touched the Life of God. He realized that it was the Life of God there. So the Word was made flesh and He lived in human flesh. He took all our sins on the Cross. And this is what happened when Jesus Christ ascended up high He went back to the same position when in Philippians 2 verse 8, Therefore God had highly exalted Him; verse 9 - therefore God had highly exalted Him - God exalted Him - God lifted Him up from the depths of sin and spiritual death and put Him on the glory where Jesus had, in John 17, the glory restored upon Him. So the glory is restored upon Jesus and Paul said let all the angels now worship His Name. His Name is high above every name. He is restored - then the omnipresence came back upon Him; the omnipotence came back upon Him; the omniscience came back upon Him except for one part He did not know the day of His coming.

So the omniscience came upon Him - Jesus knows all things except for that one tiny fact. And it all came upon Him. And the reason why the tiny fact has not been fulfilled is because the Church has not been perfected. When the Church is perfected because now Jesus is inseparably tied up with human flesh. Now notice when Jesus Christ is restored up, let me put it up here this way, notice that it is a bit slightly different glorification. Because now when Jesus was glorified, human flesh is also glorified. You see when Jesus was resurrected, God did not just resurrect and took Him back and left the human flesh behind and brought Him back to where He is. When Jesus came down He lived as a man and human flesh was in Him and He was in humankind. When He ascended therefore a part of mankind ascended - a representation of man went up unto God. For the first time man was glorified. In Jesus man was glorified. Man was in Him and He was in man and when He was glorified, a part of us is glorified. We have been glorified in Him. That is why right now the Bible can tell us verses like - now we are seated with Jesus Christ in heaven.

Jesus is up there not for Himself anymore. He has restored us so that He has set us high, higher than the angels because we are made like to the second person of the Godhead. A part of man was glorified up there, right at the very throne of God. You are brought right up into His presence and Jesus received that, according to Philippians 2:9, 10 and 11 - by humbling Himself. So now after Jesus Christ has come, all who believe in Him can partake of the power that is inherent in Him. But that power comes, the same way He receives it. Now here is a point here. After Jesus came up here, He has His body glorified; Jesus had a new body. They could not find His body at all. His body was glorified. Not the same like Lazarus' resurrection. Because when Lazarus was raised up, later he died again. When Jesus Christ was raised up physically, spiritually and physically He never rest again, He never died any more. He has overcome death - He has a glorified body. And just to prove that He had a body, when He appeared to His disciples He didn't want to show them that His Spirit was alive - He wanted to show that His body was alive. You remember when He appeared to His disciples, they were all hiding in the room, shivering away, fearful of the Jews. The first thing Jesus said was - Peace unto you all; and they all cried, all screaming away. They were shivering away. Imagine the doors were locked and Jesus just suddenly said, “Hello there, Hello there how are you?” Jesus said, “Do you all have any food?” You know why Jesus did that - He wanted to show them that His body was real. It was not some whiff or smoke that is intangible. And in front of them Jesus ate the food. I could understand how He came through the wall and remain with them but it is a marvelous thing after He ate lunch or dinner with them, He walked out and the lunch and dinner went out with Him. He ate with them; He had a new body. So Jesus’ body was glorified. He has a glorified body - a fantastic new body that you and I will receive at the rapture.

Now here is what happens when Jesus is here, up here, the purpose and the task of Jesus is the complete glorification of all who believe in Him, spirit, soul and body. Now when anyone, anyone is born again, a part of His Spirit comes into you and you receive a new spirit. His Spirit comes upon us, His Spirit is now pouring down, the same Jesus is sending His Spirit down upon us. When He went up, He said I went up to receive the promise of the Father. The promise of the Father is to receive the Holy Spirit. The Spirit that was reserved now we could receive it freely and the Bible calls it a pouring out. He pours His Spirit out upon each and everyone who believes in Him. To all who receives, Peter says in Acts, Chapter 2, he says - repent and be baptized and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit comes down upon each one of us, every single one of us. And Jesus’ task is not fulfilled until 1 Thess. 5:23 comes to pass which says that God wants to preserve our, spirit, our soul and our body. Now Jesus Christ wants to glorify all of our bodies. He has glorified Himself but the head is only glorified; the rest of His body, which is us, is not yet glorified. All who believe in Him are going to be glorified. We are all going to receive a new body like His, and here in the Book of Hebrews, turn with me to the Book of Hebrews 2: 6, 7 and 8, “What is man that you are mindful of him? or the Son of man that you take care of Him. You made Him a little lower than the angels, you crown him with glory and honor and set him over the works of your hands, you have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that He put all in subjection under Him he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor that He by the grace of God might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory. There you have the Word - He wants to bring everyone, all those who believe in Him to glorification - everyone of us. Unless your body is glorified Jesus is still interceding. He wants to bring all of our earthly flesh into glorification with Him. A new body He wants to give unto us to make the author of the salvation perfect through sufferings.

Now you read again here in verse 16 - for indeed He does not give aid to angels. I repeat -He does not give aid to angels but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham and today all of us are under that covenant of the seed of Abraham. Therefore in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God and make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Now the Book of Hebrews continues on the same tone in Hebrews 13: 20 and 21, Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that is raised Him, that great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Make you complete. Now this completeness is told unto us in 1 Thess. 5, verse 23, when you cross reference to 1 Thess. Chapter 5, verse 23, Now may the God of Peace Himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice it did not just say your spirit and your soul. But God wants to redeem you spirit, soul and body and bring him to the position where you are. Today in the spirit He has brought your spirit - your spirit is here but your spirit is also seated with God in Heaven.

But before that all His years, His 33 years on earth, as He walked, as He talked, as He humbled Himself, His Spirit was constantly in touch with God. So look at what Jesus has done for us! Today He has brought His Spirit into you. He has given you a new birth and a new spirit - He has put His Holy Spirit in you so that today we live like Jesus our spirits are in union with God - our spirits are in touch with God. But there is only one way back there! For to be like God, to receive the things of God, to be like God we have to walk the same way Jesus walked - it is not by pride and self achievement - it is by humbling ourselves before God. The things of the spirit are this - you keep humbling your soul and your body - you keep humbling your soul and your body subjecting your soul and your body to the things of the spirit - what we call, being a servant. And God uses all of life's situations to bring about subjection and humbling of our soul and our body. He did that to Jesus.

You remember when Jesus Christ was a young boy - as a young boy although He knew the Father God more than His parents, it was not time for Him to manifest for. And one day He was busy, I mean the parents came for the feast and they left without Him, He was busy in the Gospel of Luke, He was asking the questions to the rabbis and the lawyers, teachers of the Word of God in those days, and answering questions also, asking and answering and His parents were looking all over the place for Him. When they came back and looked for Him this is where they found Him, Luke 2: 48 So when the mother and the father came they saw Him, they were amazed and His mother, "Son, why have you done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought you anxiously and He said to them "Why is it that you sought me, did you not know that I am must be about my Father's business". That shows that He had a relationship with God. Don't underestimate children. He had a relationship with God. They didn't understand but it doesn't matter - in verse 50, the parents didn't understand Him but Jesus had to humble Himself in the form of a servant. So Jesus Christ, in verse 51, He went down with them, came to Nazareth and was subject to them. That's amazing. It is a normal thing for human being to subject to another who knows better than you, who is older than you, who is in experience far ahead of you. But for Jesus it was different. He knew God more than His parents. His spiritual understanding was more than them. In all ways, He was better than His parents but yet the amazing thing was that He subject Himself to them. Subject means that when His parents said, Come, come back to the carpenter's shop and help along He says, Yes - He went back. How did He receive all His Godhead and His equality back with God? It was by subjecting - or it was not just once or twice, we have a few incidences. But every time Jesus chose a different way - a different way of achieving and receiving the things from God – and that was by humbling Himself.

You see He understood that the things of God and the blessings of God come by being humble, by being a servant - not by grasping after that - subjecting Himself. And His Spirit was alive unto God. Our souls and our bodies must constantly be subject so that our spirit can dominate in our life. All of us have a soul nature and a flesh nature to deal with - to constantly subject to the things of God. Now notice what happened when Jesus ascended - Ephesians 4, verse 9 and 10, Now this He ascended, what does it mean that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth He who descended is also He who ascended far above all the Heavens - that He might feel all things and He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Here is where you have to understand the five-fold ministry graces. It says Jesus humbled Himself - for 33 years He humbled Himself, on the Cross He humbled Himself - we have touched on last week - that it was love that held Him to the Cross. He was at the Cross and He humbled Himself all the time and He descended right into the pits of hell and for three days and three nights He suffered for you and me.

Now when He ascended up, it says as He ascended He gave gifts. This five-fold ministry are called the ascension gifts. As He ascended He gave gifts. How could He be able to do it? Because in Jesus’ time we can prove it - Jesus was an Apostle, Jesus was a prophet; Jesus was an Evangelist; Jesus was a Pastor; Jesus was a Teacher. Jesus when He was on this planet earth stood in all the 5-fold offices. He is called the Apostle in the Book of Hebrews; He is called the Prophet in Acts, the Prophet whom Moses talked about. He is called the Preacher, the Evangelist - He evangelized the crowds, He preached, the Bible tells us. And He is known as the Pastor, the Shepherd. In John 10, He tells us He is the good Shepherd. He is known as the Teacher Nicodemus came to Him in John 3 and said Rabbi, Teacher. So Jesus had all the 5-fold anointing on Him. When Jesus Christ was about to leave, notice that when He was on this earth in His 3 years' time He was fulfilling the 5-fold ministries but He was fulfilling it in a different manner - by humbling Himself. Now when He goes up, He takes of the anointing of the Apostles and He drops it of f; He takes the anointing of a Prophet and He drops it off; He takes the anointing of Evangelist and He drops it off; He takes the anointing of a Pastor He drops it off; He takes the anointing of a Teacher and He drops it off. And some of us receive one, some of us stand in two offices; some stand in three but the anointing of God given onto the Body of Christ on this planet earth and we must understand that all this anointing that came, came together with the spirit of a servant.

See that is where the understanding must come. It was achieved as a result of servanthood and the transference is a result of servanthood and the manifestation will come through servanthood - servanthood. When we talk about the Ministry of God times people has a mistaken idea - Alleluia I am in the Ministry. they talk as if the Ministry is on top, that the higher you are in the 5-fold, the bigger you are, you can look down - Hey you fellows there! We have a mistaken idea. If you understood what Jesus is talking about here - it talks about the Apostles and the Prophets as the foundation. Now tell me very frankly, is the foundation on top or the bottom? - Bottom. Right! Nobody puts the foundation on the roof - we will call him crazy. The foundation is always at the bottom. Now hear me very carefully - we are talking about ministry and servanthood - the greater the ministry God has on your life, the more you have to serve. The higher your call in God - it's a different concept. The higher your call in God the more weight and burden you carry of all the others, the more service you have to do. Jesus said that he who wants to be the great among you let him be the servant of all!

So if you desire, we are talking about the five-fold ministries, we are also talking about individual body ministries, now whatever ministry you are, to the degree that God want you to have an anointing and want you to serve to that degree of ministry, you have to go under, not on top; you have to go under. So it is not something and put thing before your name - I am prophet John Doe. You say - I am prophet John Doe, I give you the orders you listen - it is a different concept, friend. If anybody comes to you that way you can show them the back door. Don't just listen to people who say, “Thus says the Lord.” Don't just listen to all these things and people who put names or titles before their names, just for the sake of recognition, are not anointing. These are not anointing. There is only a certain limit you can go to. The greater you want, the lower you have to go.

Paul, the apostle is one of a very good example. Let me show you what he describes about the apostolic ministry. He stood in three offices, anyway. Paul says about his ministry right in the early passages in 1 Cor. 9: 1, Am I not an apostle? Listen carefully - he is talking about ministry of apostleship. Paul says in 1 Cor. 12: 28 God has set apostles first. Some people mistake what the word first mean. They think the word first means lieutenant - commanding all the lance corporals and all the soldiers. First in service, friend, first. So when anybody claims or wants to exercise authority over you, because of their spiritual position, they have not understood spiritual ministry. The greater they are, the more they will come under to serve. So here we are in verse 1 Am I not an apostle, am I not free. Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord! Are you not my work in the Lord? Then in verse 4, he talks about his rights. Do we have no right to eat and drink? Do we have no right to take along a believing wife as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord and Cephas. Peter was called only to be an apostle, and I believe, in the area of teaching. But Paul was an evangelist too, that's why he went and fulfilled something that Peter did not. Now here you have, he says in verse 6 - or is only Barnabas and I who have no right? And he listed down all the rights. Remember what it means to be a servant - you surrender your right, you surrender your right. If God tells you to go and do and preach to one, you go and preach to one. If God sends you to preach to 10,000 you go and preach to 10,000. Surrender your rights. You have no more decision over your own life. Your soul and your body are subject to the spirit of God who lives you. And Paul says, that is how he concluded - in the end he concluded, we have read his conclusion in verse 19 For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more. Now you know why God used him greatly. I have made myself a servant to all! To all! Everyone.

Then again in 2 Cor. he talks about the apostolic ministry. We must take the bible in its full context, not just the portions we like to take. We have to take everything; 2 Cor. 4:7 - But we have this treasure in earthen vessels - that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard pressed every side - he is talking about his body and his soul. We, yet not crushed, we are perplexed that his soul, his soul need understanding but don't understand; we are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken - struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus - that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. What did we say about the body and the soul - we have to make our body and soul servant.

Now in the early days of Christianity, I believe the Church went on one extreme where they began to take their body as something evil. You remember Martin Luther - how he would take whip and whip his body thinking that he could get saved. They took the body as an evil element, which is one extreme. And so the worse they treat the body, the better. They felt that that was the better. It was the same with their soul, and their body. So they pummeled themselves, they mortified themselves physically to earn a stand with God - thinking that they can earn that by getting rid of what they called - the evil flesh. The Church was in one extreme - in the dark ages; and always anything to do with the body was evil. Now I believe the Church is moving over on this other extreme - where Christians see that the body is holy my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Now they have not remained in the balance - they have gone to this extreme - My Body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit - therefore I am going to clothe my body like a King - it is the opposite extreme. I am going to feed my body the best, the best. I am going to feed my body the most expensive. I am going to let my body go on the most expensive transportation. You see the value has gone over on this tangent here - so that we forget that the purpose of the soul and the body is to be servant - to bring men to complete subjection.

No wonder Jesus Christ which is the last day Church, in the Book of Revelation - the Church in Laodicea, Jesus said in Rev. chapter 3, in verse 17 Because you say I am rich, have become wealthy and have in need nothing and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. What the Church was doing and what Jesus was saying was different. Now it is not wrong to confess what you have in Christ. But I repeat again - our body and our soul can be treated nicely but don't go to the extreme and treat your body and your soul too nicely - you must treat them as servants to your spirit - there is a part of you to treat your best that is your spirit. Don't overdo on this part of the body and the soul. When you do so, you have moved from the opposite extreme over to this extreme where many Christians are only living their lives thinking about what happens in the body. Perhaps 90% of their prayers cover their bodily needs! Think about that! 90% of their confession or prayers or believing covers their body, their body, their body - my body, my body. Ya, your body. We don’t find it in the New Testament a great portion of Paul's prayers are for spiritual needs.

Look at Eph. Chap.1 - beautiful prayers - it talks about revelation in the spirit world. Look at Philippians, Chap. 1 - doing God's Will. Everyone of the prayers - Col. 1, Phil. 1, Eph. 1, Eph. 3 - can quote all the prayers to you. Very little is said about the body. Now we don't want to go back to the other extreme and neglect the body either - hold it there. But Christians must wake up to the fact, everything in this life is temporal. I repeat - everything in this life is temporal. We would do better if more Christians, how many Christians are spending as much time praying that they may enter greater spiritual revelation in heaven rather than on them. How many Christians are asking God that they may have a trip to Heaven. How many Christians are asking God that they would draw upon God the manifestation of His glory, spending time on the spirit area. See our soul and our body are supposed to be subject. I believe we have to move it right back to center, to balance where we understand the position of our body. Even Paul said - I subject my body - I tell my body what to do. I don't allow my body to tell me what to do. So we must realize that we have to mortify the body to an extent that what our body likes to do you have to say NO! - you have to say NO! Like Noel Hayes says, when he eat a coconut pie he enjoy the coconut pie and his body says - can I have one more? Can I have one more, please? So his spirit man arose and said - NO. Your body will tell you a lot of things - your body will go off track on that side.

Now just turn to 2 verses, quickly to Romans 6: 15 - What then shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace, certainly not. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin yet you obeyed from the heart that form our doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin you slaves of righteousness. Do you realize that our bodies are not to be let loose still? It is a body that needs to be subject to the things of God. Many Christians, if they only see that this extreme is wrong. You know why many Christians are not willing to pay the price and bring the gospel. They are too comfortable. If we talk about giving up comfort they say - I am giving up prosperity. If we talk about sacrificing something for God where, if you have a choice, which I say I'll repeat this in case it is forgotten - talk about minister of God. I believe ministers must live on the average lifestyle. You cannot live below because you cannot reach to the top and you cannot show forth redemption from poverty. You cannot live too high because your lifestyle would stumble many Christians. I did not say that you cannot get prosperity. We must receive prosperity to do the things of God. But we must understand that prosperity without balance brings us to imbalance here. That when we receive prosperity, put it this way, you can afford a twenty-room house, but you realize that you only need three or four rooms. Why be so foolish with sixteen empty rooms? That is the same attitude of a servant that Jesus had when he could choose to be born in Jerusalem in a best home and he choose a manger. We are not talking about whether you have prosperity or you don't have prosperity. We are talking about the fact of you have prosperity and you choose to use it wisely because your lifestyle must come forth.

Jesus doesn't seem to pay that much attention to his body and his soul as much as to His Spirit. There were times Mark 11, He was going to the fig tree to look for figs because the bible say He was hungry. John 4 tells us He was sitting on the well waiting for His disciples to go one of the towns in Samaria. The woman at the well came - He was sitting at the well and He started witnessing to her. While He was witnessing to her the disciples went to town - the disciples went to town to get some take-away food. They brought the food to Jesus - Jesus said, "I have food to eat of which you know not of! All their eyes were blinking - Did somebody bring Him food? See, they didn't understand that Jesus valued the Spirit above all natural things. By all means get the blessings of God but you must realize that our body must be restricted in the level that it is supposed to live.

And here Paul says - we are slaves - talking of our bodies as slaves to righteousness - don't let loose your body; your body will let you down. Spend all your time developing the things of the Spirit because Christians are not seeing the cross of Jesus - they are not having more of the resurrection power. Paul says in 2 Cor. 4:11 For we who live are always delivered to death, for Jesus sake. I tell you what the Body of Christ needs most today - SACRIFICE. We need to sacrifice our Isaacs on the altar - we need to sacrifice the things that we can easily indulge in. We need sacrifice to press on into the deep things of God. Just think, about 200 years ago Christianity was such that they were on this extreme a lot of sacrificing but they don't have the power of the Spirit. Here on this part, we have the power of the Spirit but many times the power of the Spirit makes us too lazy because we can pray in tongues and everything seems to come easily, and we don't have that kind of sacrifice that the Christianity had in the early days. I believe that towards the last days there will be a proper balance. Where we have the same zeal to sacrifice as we had together with the anointing of the Holy Spirit we will press on and do great works in the last days.

God needs to bring this body right over to the balance and say - treat your body as the temple of the Holy Spirit but remember it is temporal. All the things in life - the energy you put into life. How much energy do we put, everyday into the things that we use and pass away. God says - put all the energy into the things of the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. We need more and more men or women of God that way who will put all their energy into the things of the Spirit. I mean we couldn't be bothered in what kind of place we live in as long as it is just nice enough f or you to spend time with God - Amen! Why be bothered so much about that. And then say - Praise God, I want to prosper. Yes, prosper by all means but be like Jesus. Use the body as a slave - subject your body as under servanthood and live sacrificial lives, you keep giving off, and you keep giving off, and you keep giving off . A lot of ministries are not taking off because a lot of ministers are spending their time in front of their TVs. I mean, these are the last days, I don't understand people of God who know Jesus Christ and know that the time is short and know that these are the last days and yet, watching there.... I really don't understand that kind of Christianity blows my mind! I don't understand that of commitment but I understand one thing that when Jesus calls Jesus tells you, sacrifice.

Paul tells in 2 Cor. 4:12, So death is working in us but life in you. Do you understand that principle? Paul is saying - now the same Paul will talk about prosperity; he is not talking about sickness - by all means he is not talking about sickness. But he is talking about taking his body subjecting his body to the things of God and he says - death is working in us so that life can work in you. This is the principle of God. The amount, death means the cross, the cross means death, then to carry the cross means to carry death - denying yourself, putting to death your own desires. We talk about the cross today until it is decorated, so lovely - we have golden crosses, silver crosses, beautiful lovely thing, right! The modern day equivalent of the cross is the electric chair. How do you like to put a golden electric chair and hang it over your neck? The cross just talks to us about death.

Jesus says take up the cross daily. Everyday you have a choice for self-fulfillment or Christ fulfillment. And it would take more just confession; it would take more than just knowing our right. It would take the denying of our own self in order to bring about the revival for the coming of Jesus. It would take more than just know our rights and privileges. It would take more than that. It would take a self-sacrificing of our time, of our talents, of our possessions - sacrificing it on the altar of God, and bringing ourselves before God - and giving ourselves to the things of the Spirit - to usher in the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ - that needs a big AMEN. And that is what Paul is saying - according to the level of death working in me - the cross working in me, life could work you. We are talking about ministry - ministering as servants and God has something in your life to contribute to someone else. The gifts of God given to you to function in the body is not so that - I will be recognized... I will be prominent.... I will have the preeminence..... I am seated here -just like the flower, seen by everybody. Tie a ribbon round you. The ministry of God is not that way.

Understand what Paul says that here is the servanthood - the ministry all comes from servanthood - how much you want to impart to the Body of Christ, to that measure you have to deny yourself. So if you want to change the world for Jesus, you have to sacrifice something. And I asked Jesus about that - I said Lord, why don't You appear to more people? Why don't you manifest to more people? Why don't the power of God and the presence of God appear to more people? The Lord Jesus told me this and He said - my people are too busy for me - I tell you this - He says my people are too busy! They are not waiting upon Me. They are spending all their time on their own ways, their own things. They are not giving themselves unto me. We need to dedicate ourselves, to spend time with God. Remember the things of the world - the things of the world all pass away. In order to bring into our lives something that benefits the body there is something that we have to give up. It is proportional - there will be death - that is the cross working in your life.

Paul, a man who came much later than all the apostles and wrote one-third of the New Testament, is spoken of in every seminary and bible college. His example today shines forth like a bright star - but he says he has given up much. I don't understand people who say, I have the call of God on my life and don't pay the price for the call and if you say I have the call of God and am not sure, you are not called. Because when the call of God is on your life there is something in your life that propels you to give up there is something. The call of our life is precious. The call... Ecclesia.... the Church - everyone of us has a general call and then you have the other call to the ministry. The call of God in your life is precious. You pay a price for that call. God has a plan for everyone of us. God has a plan. I could see the things of God that God could do- the potential in each one of you. That you could change the world - transform and perfect the Church - but the call of God

is so precious that you have to give up yourself to that call to the direction you have in your life. If God has given you a vision, a dream, a plan in your life it will not come to pass unless you give yourself sacrificially to that call. I don't understand people who say they are called and are not willing to give all that they had to the Lord.

I can tell you the call of God is precious, valuable and I close with the four points that you can find in the life of Moses - in Exodus chapter 3 and the Acts, chapter 7

Acts chapter 7: 20, 21, 22 onwards, At this time Moses was born and was well pleasing to God. He was brought up in his father’s house for three months. But when he was set out, Pharaoh's daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptian and was mighty in word and deed. When he was 40 years old he came, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian.

Look at verse 22, very carefully, he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptian, was mighty in words. I believe I would be right if I take the word mighty in words to mean he was a great orator. What else could it mean? He was mighty in words, trained in speech and deeds. Bible tells us the reason why he killed the Egyptian was, in the next verse, 25 - he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hands. Moses had a call of God on his life. For forty years that was on his life. He knew God had saved his life for a special reason. In fact he constantly visited his own people to see 'the sufferings and it must have pained his heart. He had a call of God - he had a plan of God in his life that was unfulfilled. He knew God was going to use him to deliver the Israelites - he knew it - it's very obvious, he knew it. When he was forty years old he knew God was going to use him somehow, somewhere to free the Israelites. Because of that reason he killed the Egyptians so that, in the verse here it tells us, that by that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand - 40 years of training in the world - it never worked out. His own people rejected him. Pharaoh went after him and he ran into the wilderness for 40 years. After 40 years, as he was there taking care of sheep, Exodus, chapter 3 the Lord appeared to him. This time the Lord said - verse 9 and 10 Now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me and I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. He was 80 years old by now. The Lord says in verse 10 - come, come now therefore and I will send you to Pharaoh. Finally after 80 long years, the time came for the fulfillment of his call. That which he had dreamed about, that which he had trained himself for, now, God says I am going to send - but it was a different Moses now. It was a different Moses - four things I want you to see here.

First thing, Moses says in verse 11, who am I? 40 years of Egyptian training - 40 years in the wilderness he realized it is not by might, not by power that he can do the things of God. He came before God and he said "God, Who am I? The first step he took - he said, " God Who am I?" The first thing you have to do is to discover who you are in God! Whether God set you to be in the 5-fold or God did not set you in the 5-fold! What God wants you to do in your life - you must discover who am I. Paul says, before I was born, even when I was in my mother’s womb, God has separated me for a reason - for apostleship. Whether you are called to the full-time ministry or not, God has a plan for your life. You will never be happy as long as you do not discover that plan. No matter how hard you try to be happy, you cannot unless you find out what God has for you - who am I in God. So God told Moses, you are the one I am going to send, your mighty strength. He found his place in history. Find your place in history and let history be written.

Second thing, Moses said, "When I go, the people will ask me who send, what is His name?” Second thing that Moses confronted when God said - tell them, verse 14, I am the I am - the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob - I AM the I AM and have sent you. Second thing Moses found, he found who God was. He had an intimate knowledge of God. He did not want to just go out and tell people about God. He wanted to tell people God Himself. He wanted to turn people to God. He said God who are you. He discovered who God was. He discovered God. God told him who He was. It is a mystery reminding him but I AM the I AM is the everlasting eternal God. Not I was but the I AM. There is only one - the only true and living God, he says I am the one you are meeting him now, you must meet with God face to f ace. Every single man who wrote this book, called the Bible has met with God. We need that same spirit of inspiration to work today; must discover God in your life - not just the God who saves but the God for who He is and no man can find God unless they seek after Him with all their hearts. Do you know God? Do you really know Him? Even Paul said, I do not know all of Him, I am pressing to know Him more.

The third thing after he discovered God, in chapter 4, Moses said if I just go and tell them they won't believe so God told Moses - I will give you three signs, three signs. He threw down the rod and the rod became a serpent - Moses ran from the rod, from the serpent. I believe he ran from the serpent not because he was just frightened of the serpent because as a shepherd he would have seen snakes many times. As a trained Egyptian he would have known all these things. But he ran because it was supernatural. He had never seen a stick turn into a snake. Not only because he ran from the serpent, he ran from the supernatural phenomena. But God gave him three signs God said, you can do this, the second sign of the hand - the third sign, God said, if they don't believe these two signs, take water pour it out it will be blood! God gave him signs - these signs shall follow those who believe. God has always been giving signs to His Body. Nicodemus told Jesus in John 3 - no man can do these signs except God be with him. If God is with you, there will be signs in your life. He discovered signs. Everyone of you God has predestined, God has planned for you to work miracles and impossible situations turn that around. Everyone of you seated here are life changers. Everyone of you seated here has a place in history. Not only do you need to live your life and die without affecting the face of this earth. But your life can be an impact on those around you - receive the sign.

And the last one, not the least, Moses came to this point, in chapter 4: 10 - he said, Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent - and this is one of the hardest point for us to come. Remember we read in Acts 7, he was eloquent - he was a man mighty in words and in deed. And this is one of the hardest for God to use people. You must surrender your strong point. The part of you that you feel is the best, the part of you of your character or of your talent that you deem, that you are! You are clever, you are smart. You can do it. Moses came to that point after 40 years of humbling. Even the talent that he developed after 40 years, when he was mighty in word and deed, when he saw it in the presence of God, he was like filthy rags - his talents before God became filthy rags. I don't care how smart or how talented you are but God doesn’t necessarily use a smart and a talented - He uses the yielded. And sometimes it is more difficult for God to use a talented, a smart and a skillful person because the person has pride. But when you come face to face with God even your best talent, your best character, your best skills are filthy rags. Moses' eloquence and power of speech in the presence of God, he says - I am not eloquent compared to you, my Lord and unless we come to that point, we cannot be servants of God - cannot be slaves of God. A lot of people tried to serve God with their talent, with their smartness, with their skills but God says - I don't want all that - I only want your hearts. If you will give me your hearts, God says, I can give you ability any time. He told Moses, He said - who made man's mouth? And God said I will be with your mouth - four things.

The fifth point, which you do not have, Moses turned around and said God sent somebody else. That was the first time the Bible said God got angry. I want you to know everyone of you is special to God. Nobody can do the part of ministry that God want you to do but God don't want you to do it in your own talent, in your own wisdom. He doesn't want you to glorify in your ability. Don't pass that part of your life that you are supposed to fulfill for it angers God if you say - God I don't want to do it, let somebody do it. In the Books of Heaven opened above in His Presence, every one of us has a plan, a purpose in this life. If you live and die without fulfilling your purpose, I believe, on the overall, the work of God is tempered a little bit because God needs to choose another one. Every one of us has a plan written that God has in store for you.

I want you, this morning, to bring all your talents, all your skills, and even those points that you evaluate yourself to be good at before God that must be yielded and surrendered. Unless you see, like Jesus said, without Him you can do nothing and all that Jesus asks is one word "YIELD" - just yield to Him - I will be that ability, I will be that which I want to work in your life. If you are not going to yield, you will be like Moses, trying to do the work of God - it will come to failure. Nothing in God's Kingdom can be done without His Spirit. Every little detail from the smallest to the biggest work must be done under the power of the Spirit, under the realization that in our selves we are nothing, we cannot bring our filthy works before Him. We can only give Him our hands and let Him work through our hands.

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