Message Title: Entering into Christ's Wonderful Shepherding in His Heavenly Ministry to Shepherd the Church of God as a Slave of God for the Fulfillment of the Dream of God
the Lord became a pnuematic Shepherd dwelling within us to shepherd our soul, our entire being iin our spirit.
I. we need to enter into Christ's wonderful shepherding in His heavenly ministry by enjoying and ministering Christ to shepherd the church of God as a slave of God for the fulfillment of the dream of God, the eternal purpose of God
if we do not enjoy the shepherding of the Lord as in Psalm 23, there will be no way for us to minister and shepherd others.
1 Peter 5:2 Shepherd the flock of God among you, overseeing not under compulsion but willingly, according to God; not by seeking gain through base means but eagerly;
Peter charged us to shepherd the flick of God, which is the church, not according to our own will, but according to God. the real shepherding is the Lord's shepherding His sheep within and through us. therefore the first thing we need is to enjoy the Lord, to enjoy the Lord's shepherding. when we enjoy His shepherding, we will be able to minister Him and His shepherding to the saints and to the church.
Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.
the Lord, as the Savior God, came to save us by serving us, even giving His life for us. He served us in the past, He is still serves us in the present, and He is going to serve us in the future. during His whole life on the earth, He did serve many. as Jacob said at the end of his life in the book of Genesis, he refered to God as the God who shepherded him all his life. like Jacob, we also can testify that the Lord has been shepherding us all our life. without His shepherding, we will not be here now, and we will not be who we are now. the Lord is the good Shepherd, the chief Shepherd, and the great Shepherd to all of us, the Overseer of our soul, and our being. whenever we have a need, we can come to the Lord and let Him serve us so that He can serve others through us. as the life-giving Spirit, the Savior shepherds others through us by dispensing Himself as life into us so that we can become the channel for Him to dispense Himself as life into others. the primary thing in shepherding is not to solve problems, but to dispense Christ, to minister Christ as life into others. today, the Lord needs many to be such channels so that He can dispense Himself as life into others. how can we do this? we need to go to the Lord, to tell the Lord that we do not know what to do, that we do not know how to shepherd. we need a great renewal in this aspect. let us take the lead, first to experience the Lord, to let the Lord shepherd us. then spotaneusly, we will do what the Lord is doing, to do the shepherding in the right way.
Matthew 25:21 His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful over a few things; I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your master.
we all should aspire to be such good and faithful slaves, so that we can enter into the joy of our Master. our usefulness before God is the result of our being mingled with Him; the measure of God in us is the measure of our usefulness before Him. therefore, if we desire to be more and more useful before God, we need to spend more and more time to be mingeld with the Lord first. God's only goal is to dispense Himself into us day by day so that we may be fully mingled with Him; all our service, especially the service os shepherding, is a matter of God coming into us and coming out of us. we need to let the Shepherd come into us and mingle Himself with us. then when we go to others, the Shepherd will flow out through us to reach others.
II. to shepherd the flock of God is to watch over the souls of the saints, being one with the Lord as the Shepherd and Overseer of their souls in His care for the welfare of their inner being and in His exercising His oversight over the condition of their real person
all our probems are more in the realm of our soul, less in our spirit. therefore, our souls need to be watched over by the Shepherd. we need to be one with the Shepherd and Overseer in watching over the souls and praying for all the believers.
for the sake of the flock, we must enjoy the Lord as grace and truth day by day. if we do not enjoy, we will have nothing to dispense and minister to others. especially in such evil days, we need to redeem the time, even fight to redeem the time. we need to spend less time on all other things, but more time to be in the presence of the Lord.
III. the elders should not lord it over God's flock, which is God's possession; the churches are God's possesion, allotted to the elders as their portion, entrusted to them by God for their care
the churches are God's possession. who are we to lord over the possession of God? we are all brothers and sisters in the church. none of us is the lord, or the master. when we take the lead to take care and shepherd others, we become a pattern to all the members in the church in shepherding each other. all the members should have the same care and love for each other, but they do need some patterns to follow, in how to shepherding others. while we are shepherding others, we need to be careful not to direct others what to do or where to go, so that we can honor Christ as the Head of the Body. if we are directing others, we are not holding to Christ as our Head. as the members in the Body of Christ, every believer should receive leading and guidance from the Lord as our Head. if there is no leading from the Lord, we should not do anything. we should keep waiting on the Lord until we receive a clear leading from the Lord.
IV. we need to take care of the saints in everything and in every way for the dispensing of Christ into them
our first job is to contact people, to contact the saints. even just for a short period of time, we should contact people, invite them over to find out how they have been doing.
V. in their fellowship with one another, the elders need to be restricted in their speaking.
we need to be restricted from speaking any reviling words. and we also need to learn to withstand the reviling words, not taking in any reviling words, in order to maintain the oneness of the church.
VI. the organic maintenance of the golden lampstand is Christ's heavenly ministry to cherish the churches in His humanity and nourish the churches in His divinity to produce the overcomers through His organic shepherding.
the Son of Man in Revelation 1 walking in the midst of seven golden lampstands is the One who is speaking to the seven churches. this shepherding is the work that Christ is doing today, and this shepherding produces the overcomers to fulfill God's purpose today.
VII. the goal of Christ's wonderful shepherding in His heavenly ministry is to build up the New Jerusalem for the accomplishment of the eternal ecnomy of God; for eternity we will enjoy the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, shepherding us and continually guiding us to springs of waters of life
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