Beloved: grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am delighted to welcome you to another week in the month of May 2020. My prayer is that God will make you flourish like never before in it, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
This Sunday marks exactly eight years that we have been meeting together as an assembly in this town. And when we started, it did not look like we would be able to stand at all in the eyes of those who think they are in a form of competition with other assemblies of God in their locality. Some even told it to our faces that our coming together like that was a mistake – we should never have allowed it to happen. And to say the fact, why should there be another assembly of God’s people in a town that already has many? The reason is simple: the work of the kingdom of God is enormous, and God requires as many diligent and faithful hands as He can get to do it.
Remember that Jesus once said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send labourers into His harvest field.” (Cf. Luke 10:2) So, even though there are many assemblies of God all around, there are yet countless unsaved people in our world that need to be reached with the gospel and discipled in the will of God. Besides, how many of those who are in these assemblies of God actually belong to Christ and are not mere church meeting goers? And even among those who belong to Christ, how many are actually labouring together with Him?
Therefore, when the Lord finds anyone that is willing to labour with Him faithfully and diligently, He will send Him forth and also equip Him to do His work. And this is exactly the point He is making in the parable of the landowner that went out at different times of a particular day to hire different people to work for him. As the account shows, the man kept going out to the very last working hour of the day to recruit more people to work in his farm. Why? It was because the work was enormous. So, his concern was not that some of the workers may feel threatened by the coming in of others or that they may begin to see the whole thing as some form of competition. Rather, his concern was that his work may be done well and faithfully and be completed within the amount of time available. And if it was by getting more people involved in the work that the result he wanted was going to be accomplished, he was more than willing to get them. (Cf. Matt 20:1-16)
In like manner, the Lord is not going to stop raising more labourers and sending them into His field of harvest, just because some are going to feel threatened, unhappy, uncomfortable, jealous or bitter about the whole thing. Inasmuch as sending more faithful people in is what will get Him the results He desires, He will keep sending them in until the very end. This is why we should never feel threatened or frustrated when we see God raising more people around us to do His work. And we should never compete with anybody in doing the work of God, for nobody can do our own part of the work, if we do not neglect it. So, our focus should be on doing our own part of the work faithfully and diligently to the very end, bearing the fact in mind that none of us has what it takes to do all that the Lord wants done. Each of us will only do what God has assigned him and also enables him to do. (Cf. Eph 4:7-16)
Then we should not feel bad because somebody will not join our own group of believers in doing the Lord’s work. Inasmuch as they are true children of God and are devoted to Him, we should let people live for God and serve Him where they feel most comfortable. When the apostles complained to the Lord about a man that was driving out demons in His name and was not one of them, He simply told them that they should let him be. Why? It was because the man was not against them but on their side, for He was doing the Lord’s will, even though he was not in their group. And interestingly, the Lord did not tell them to go and call the man to join the apostolic band in order for his ministry to be validated. (Cf. Mark 10:38-40) So, we should not despise anybody’s ministry or consider it to be fake because they are not with our group of believers. Instead, we should bless God for them and pray that they, together with us, will excel with whatever work the Lord has assigned to us.
Well then, as we start another year of sharing our lives together with God and with one another, I want you to join me in thanking God for loving us and for touching our lives the way He has been doing. I also want us to thank Him for enabling us to be firm and consistent in doing His will during these eight years. More so, we should thank Him for all the lives He has blessed and affected for good through us. And as we begin a new year of fellowship with Him again, my prayer is that our hearts will be strengthened to receive and enjoy all that He has in store for us.
Do have a very pleasant week.
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