In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of service and its connection to being a disciple of the Lord. The sermon begins by referencing scriptures that highlight the commandment to serve God. It then explores the concept of being careful in one's life and the need to present oneself as a living sacrifice to God. The speaker also discusses the unity of believers as one body in Christ and the different gifts and administrations given by the Holy Spirit. Overall, the sermon encourages believers to understand the purpose of service and to align their lives with God's will.

We truly thank you. It is your sovereign grace that led us together. We thank you because we gather in your name. We know you are in Christ. We thank you and praise you. This is holy ground. Lord, we take off our shoes. We prostrate before you. Lord, whatever you have to command us, we are willing to take your life, your will, and your kingdom. We thank you because it is a four-part lecture. Therefore, we must communicate in four parts. This is centered upon service. If we were to serve, if we were to serve, we cannot but mention the Lord. We cannot but mention the disciples. If we are here to talk about master and not the service, then what do we serve? If we are here to talk about service and not master, then how do we serve? So brothers and sisters, every time we think of serving, we must first think of our Lord. Because the matter of service before the Lord is not just a simple matter. Just to serve somebody. But to serve a Lord. The purpose of our service is not on ourselves. The purpose of our service is on our Lord. If today we forget our Lord and serve Him, then we must be serving the thing and be serving ourselves. So dear brothers and sisters, every time we think of serving, we must look at our Lord. If we do not look at our Lord, if we miss the master, then we are here merely conducting some religious services. And they are without value before the Lord. When we talk about service today, and yet ourselves are not the true disciples of the master, then how do we serve? We may be serving according to our own concept. Because we are unable to be considerate of the Lord's purpose. We must be serving according to our own strength. We will not rely upon the might of the Holy Spirit. This kind of service is not looked upon by the Lord. So as we talk about service here, I hope our sisters will remember it, the master and the disciples. The one we serve is the master. The ones who serve are the disciples. Only within this relationship can we present ourselves before the Lord with a true service. The difficulty among the Church today is that we only pay attention to the service, and without looking at the master. At the same time, we are not truly following our master to be his disciple. The result is that we see a lot of activities. They are only religious activities. They are only traditional activities. As far as the work of the Lord is concerned, they are without benefit. For instance, in the 18th century, we remember John Wesley. John Wesley was born into a Christian family. His father was a pastor. From his youth, he grew up within such an environment. As he grew up, he felt like he should serve the Lord as well. Hourly speaking, he was truly pious. He was even ordained to be a pastor. He felt burdened to go to the New World to preach. That is, to come to America to preach. He essentially had the burden to preach to the native Indians. Therefore, he crossed the Atlantic and came to the state of Georgia. He began to serve. He began to do a work to transform the unbelieving Jantar Indians. But at that moment, he himself was not even saved. Neither did he know this redeeming Lord. All he knew were merely doctrines. All he knew were merely traditions. So he worked without result. And at the end, he failed. And he returned to England. As he returned to England, he began to fellowship with a group of people. They were the Moravian brethren. These Moravians truly knew the Lord. And he joined himself in their meetings. One day, as they were reading Martin Luther's book on Romans, according to the law of the time, if you are not ordained to be a minister, you cannot preach. But as they were reading the preface, John Wesley heard about what was written in the preface. And inwardly, he began burning. He felt like he truly had believed the Lord Jesus to be his Redeemer. And faith grew out of him. And he was saved. From that moment on, he began to serve again. He not only preached justification by faith, he also paid attention to the matter of sanctification by faith. And the Lord greatly used this person. So we see if a person does not know the Lord, he can serve. But what he served was only faith. He only served according to tradition. You must know the Lord before your service can be of effect. For instance, we know in the New Testament, the pharisaical Saul, Saul was learned from his youth according to the teaching of Judaism. When he was young, about 12 years of age. According to the tradition of the Jewish law, a young boy at 12 years of age, he became a son of the law. It was quite possible during that time, he went to Jerusalem to receive a higher learning. And he became a disciple of Gamaliel. So he was very familiar concerning the Jewish tradition. Even though he was a young lad, he was full of zeal. He was more zealous compared to his counterpart. So according to the teaching of Judaism, he determined that Jesus was a rebel. And he rose up to oppose and persecute the followers of Jesus. Thinking such is serving God. Unbeknownst to him, such service caused the Lord to suffer loss. All the way until on the road to Damascus, he was met by the Lord. He knew the Lord. And he fully yielded himself to the power of the Lord. And he began to be used by the Lord. So he has become the apostle Paul that we know today. So brothers and sisters, we must know for sure, when we are to talk about service, first thing we must know is to know the Lord. Because service is an issue from knowing the Lord. Secondly, we must become the disciples of the Master. Unless we are disciples of the Master, our Master would not need our service. We remember in Matthew chapter 8, there is a scribe that came to the Lord. He said, Rabbi, I will follow you wherever you go. How did our Master reply to him? He said, foxes have holes. Birds have nests. But the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. The scribe came with zeal, wanting to follow the Lord. But our Lord poured cold water on his head. Because he had not believed in the Lord yet. The Lord would not need the service of such people. But on the other hand, there is another disciple. The Lord allowed me to bury my father first before I come to serve. Perhaps at this time his father was not dead yet. Therefore he said, wait until my father dies. Then I will come follow you. The Lord replied, let the dead bury the dead. Come and follow me. Because he is a disciple. So, brothers and sisters, if today we are not truly disciples of him, we are not even worthy of serving him. We are unable to serve him. So even though we have three brothers, each one taking a topic, but in reality what we talk about is inseparable. We firstly must know the Lord. And secondly we must be his disciples. Then can we talk about the matter of service. My responsibility is to share service with you. Today we shall begin with the commencement of service. How does service have its beginning? Please turn to a few portions of scriptures. Exodus 9, verse 1. Exodus 9, verse 1. Then the Lord said to Moses, go to Pharaoh and speak to him. Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, let my people go, that they may serve me. Please turn to Joshua, chapter 24, verse 15. This is what the Lord said to Moses, build for me sites where you may serve me. This is who you are on the River of BETHELEM. This is who you are in the desert. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Lastly, please turn to Romans, Romans 12, verses 1, 2, and 5. I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your body to living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove by testing what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable to God. So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. We know God created man with his purpose. God created man according to his own image. God created man with the purpose that man will receive his own life. But through the life of God inwardly, he can be used by God to accomplish the work that God wants to be accomplished. Regrettably, we all know what happened in the Garden of Eden. Our forefathers Adam and Eve disobeyed God's command. Because they sinned, they lost the original purpose by which God created man. But praise and thank God, through his own son, coming to the earth to become a man, he accomplished the work of redemption on the cross, so that we, who had lost God's original purpose of creation, could be saved. What did he save us for? He didn't save us just merely that we would not go to hell, but go to heaven. Of course we thank God. Because of his salvation, we will not go to hell. And we can't go to heaven. But this is not the purpose by which God saved us. God saved us in order to fulfill God's purpose of his creation. God's purpose of creation was lost because of man's sin. But now because of the salvation of the Lord Jesus, he recovered us back into the original purpose in his creation. So when we are saved, God wants to bring us back to his purpose of creation. He gave us his own life. Through this new life he gave us, we can become a useful vessel in his hand, so that we can service God's desire. So we know a redeemed person. He is saved in order to service God's purpose. We know in the beginning when the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, God sent Moses to redeem his people from Egypt. How did Moses speak to Pharaoh? He said, the Lord said, let my people go, that they may serve me. The children of Israel were saved. They were enslaved in Egypt. They were in travail. They were even without the hope for living. God's grace came upon them. So they were delivered from Egypt. And God delivered them from Egypt, not that they can become a free man, so that they can do whatever they please. God delivered them with a purpose. He said, let my people go. For what? To do what? That they may serve me. So we see God's salvation is for the purpose of service. As soon as we are saved, we must rise up to become one who serves the Lord. It is not to stay among all God's redeemed. There is only a minority. They are the ones who serve. As for the rest of us, we do not need to serve. We can serve ourselves. We can even serve mammon. But God did not want us to serve this way. So we must make sure of one thing. As soon as we are saved, God's purpose for us is that we would serve Him. So every saved person is a service purpose. If we are served and we do not serve the Lord, for us, we have received grace of salvation. But for God, He has gained nothing in us. So you see, when God delivered His people from Egypt into Canaan, when they settled down in Canaan, Joshua became old. And one day they gathered all Israel to the place of Shechem. And he reviewed the history of God's deliverance. Then he spoke to them. There is a question you must have an answer for today. You are a people delivered by God. You have come out of Egypt into Canaan. So you must solve this problem. What is that problem? That is the problem of service to God. Whom do you wish to serve? Would you serve the God of your fathers beyond the river? Or would you rather serve the God of the Amorites in which you live? Or would you serve the true God, Jehovah? The one who delivered you. He said this problem you must solve today. Whom do you wish to serve? Would you serve a false God or a true God? Would you serve the God according to the tradition of your fathers? Or would you rather serve this God who delivered you? Would you serve the false God of the Gentiles in which you live? Or would you rather serve this God who personally delivered you? And just as Joshua declared, as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah. We have solved our problem. Not only Joshua solved his problem, his whole house was solved by him. Indeed, God's salvation is based upon the unit of house. So the unit of service is also by a house. Joshua and his house will serve the Lord. At the moment Israelites answered Joshua, we will serve Jehovah who saved us. But what did Joshua reply? Joshua said, you cannot serve Jehovah. Because Jehovah is a Jail of God. He is a Holy God. If you were to serve him, you must do away with the false God first. Otherwise you cannot serve God. If you do not completely throw away these false gods, this God who saved you will send terror upon you. This is a very serious matter. It is not something that can be solved easily. But thank God. At that time, the Israelites were truly in the love of God. Because they dreamed of salvation. So they said, we decided to serve Jehovah. We will leave all the false gods to serve Jehovah. So that day, Joshua and the people of Israel made a covenant in front of God. That is, they will serve Jehovah God. So dear brothers and sisters, we thank and praise God. I believe all who are seated here have been saved. God's grace has surely come upon us. If this be the case, then we must address the problem of service. We cannot be ambiguous as to whether we are saved towards the matter of service. We must come to a solution. What are we living for? Because our Lord told us, a man cannot serve two masters. You either pay attention to this one or turn away to the other. You cannot serve the Lord and mammon both. You must choose. If you have not made a choice, then you must be serving mammon. You must have made a choice in order to know who to serve. So brothers and sisters, we must have a clear choice concerning the matter of service before the Lord. Concerning God's salvation, God saved us out of sin. He purchased us with a great price. We are the redeemed ones. He paid the most heavy price. He even laid aside His only begotten Son. Our Lord gave Himself up on behalf of us. With such a great price He redeemed us. We are not a free man. We are those who are purchased. We do not belong to ourselves. We belong to our Lord. Formerly we were slaves to sin. Now we are slaves to righteousness. So brothers and sisters, we must know this. Not that when we were slaves to sin, now that we have been saved, we are free. We can be our own master. We can do whatever we please. A cruel master. Now another master of kindness has purchased us. So today we are not master to ourselves. We are those who belong to the Lord. But our Lord works in a marvelous way. According to law, we have been purchased. We are not free. We are purchased to serve God. Whether you like it or not, you must serve. If you don't like it, you still have to serve. Because you are not a free man. You are redeemed with a great price. God can deal with you according to reason. To demand, to command that you serve Him. But thank God. God did not do so. After He redeemed us, He didn't treat us with law. He encouraged us with His kindness. So when we come to Romans 12, we see, therefore, brethren, I beseech you by the mercies of God to offer your bodies a living sacrifice. It is holy. It is pleasurable. Such is your reasonable service. Brothers and sisters, we know from chapter 1 to chapter 11 of Romans that He showed us the multifarious kindness of the Lord. He showed us how He delivered us who are dead in sin to those who are without hope who are dead in the world. By the precious blood of Lord Jesus, by the cross of the Lord Jesus, He fully saved us. He gave us His own life so that we can become sons of God. He gave us His Holy Spirit to work within us conforming us to the image of His dear Son. How rich is His multifarious grace. Among myriads of people, He saved you and me. We were Gentiles. We were outside of the covenant of God. But today His grace has come upon us. God said, I will encourage you by my grace. I will not deal with you by law. I rather would touch you by my mercy and grace. But by the constraining power of love, you are willingly offering yourself as a living sacrifice. In other words, you are willing to become my love slave. You are willing to serve me. If you do so, the Scripture says, Brothers and sisters, when we talk about service, our concept is often what we do for God. I remember before I was saved because I was also born into a Christian family. As I was young, one time I was dying of sickness. I also prayed and my family also prayed for me. God pulled me out of the brink of death. Because of my Christianity background, I felt that for me to live today is because of His grace. So I must repay His grace. From that moment on, I became zealous. Even before I was saved, I began preaching. But I had nothing to preach. So how did I do? Because my father was a preacher. He had many spiritual books. So I remember my very first sermon was not my own. My sermon was borrowed. I translated his sermon from English to Chinese. And I memorized it. And I went to preach. I was very happy I was done. The only pity that nobody praised me for it. Even before I was saved, I led prayer meetings. And how could I lead a prayer meeting? I did the same thing. I read a book on prayer. I memorized it. Then I shared it with my fellow classmates. And I asked them all to kneel down to pray. No one saved. Therefore no one prayed. And some began to laugh. And I scolded him. You cannot do so before God. Brothers and sisters, you can perform some sort of service there. You serve in a foolish way. I was not even saved yet. I knew there was a God. But I didn't know where He was. He was not in me for sure. Thank God. One day when the grace of God came upon me, I knew I belonged to Him. I knew I must serve Him. Brothers and sisters, the commencement of our service is according to consecration. Consecration does not do something for God. Service is to offer your bodies up as a living sacrifice. Because your bodies are no longer yours. Your bodies are purchased by God with a heavy price. How can we live for ourselves using this body? There is no reason to use this body for ourselves. Neither can we use our body according to our will. Our bodies belong to the Lord. That's why the scripture says, offer your bodies up as a living sacrifice. Why did He say the body? Because through your body you gain your existence. So the body represents your whole being. In other words, offer your whole being fully and totally to the Lord. As you offer yourself this way. This is a reasonable service. So you see that service is not to serve a thing. Service is not to do a work for the Lord either. Service is to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. So brothers and sisters, what is a sacrifice? We know in the Old Testament when a man was moved by God God had granted him much grace. He had a gratitude. So among his herds and flocks he would select either a cattle or a goat and bring them to the temple and he would tie him on the altar which means he would offer this as a sacrifice to God. Then the priest would come along and kill and fillet the cattle and place it upon the altar and it would be consumed by the fire upon the altar all the way till ashes. In other words this becomes food for God to satisfy God's heart. Therefore you see sacrifice is not to place sheep or cattle on the altar to do something. Before he was placed on the altar he can roam around. But when he was placed on the altar he could not move it and he was to be killed and to be consumed by fire and to become ashes. Brothers and sisters in the New Testament time the Lord did not delight not in our cattle or sheep he wants ourselves. We need to offer our bodies a living sacrifice. We are the sacrifice but this is a living sacrifice. In other words you are living for God because you are a sacrifice. So you are not there to do something but you allow the Lord to do everything he wants to do on you. You fully yield it to his hand. You fully turn over your sovereignty Lord I am yours. Do whatever you wish. You see that firstly God is doing something in you. It is not you doing something for God right away. But it is you who yield yourself in the hands of God to allow him to do a work in you to allow his claws to do a work in you to allow him to do a work in you. Whatever does not belong to him whatever does not belong to the Lord whatever belongs to the natural realm the flesh he would separate with his two edged sword soul from the spirit he would do away with whatever is not from the Lord he would increase himself in us In this way then it is possible that service would issue out of our being So brothers and sisters we must remember we are today to serve God Firstly we must know him If we do not know him yet there is no possibility to serve him How much we know our Lord How much our service would be Because service is an issue of life It is not in our activity Secondly If we are to truly serve God we must become his disciples If we are not his disciples we cannot serve him What is a disciple? In the beginning Disciples was not the same as being a student Today we are students We pay a tuition and we can go to school to learn We do not have a direct relationship with our teachers We only gain some knowledge from them We are still free men But the disciples in the scriptures means the apprentice in the Chinese history In the past we had a system of apprentices If you are to become a carpenter or any other vocation you have to go to a teacher to become an apprentice You have to sign a contract with your teacher When you have signed the contract you have to leave your home You have to live in your teacher's house For example It takes three years to fully learn everything In the first year he will not even teach you how to cut wood You will do all the household chores including sweeping and caring for the kids Just like a servant He will not teach you neither let you touch the vocation Perhaps after a year he will teach you a little bit When three years is up you learn all the skills and you also learn his way of conduct By this time you talk like him Sometimes the way you walk the way you act So this disciple in the scriptures is just about the same as the apprenticeship in the Chinese history That's why the Lord says lay aside everything come and follow me You have to leave your house and you will live in your teacher's home And that is truly to become a disciple So it is the same for us today to offer our body as a living sacrifice As you offer your body as a living sacrifice you are in essence to acknowledge he is your master As our brother shared last night he began to know the Lord's authority Now his authority is upon you He is your Lord You are not your own master You cannot do anything according to your will You have to obey the master's command in everything When you offer your body as a living sacrifice that is to acknowledge Jesus is your Lord At the same time when you offer your body as a living sacrifice it is the same time when you forsake all to follow him You stand upon the ground of being a disciple You are there to learn the character of the Lord Jesus to allow his character to become yours So we see that service is commenced from offering your body as a living sacrifice If today you have not yet offered your body as a living sacrifice you have not even begun to serve All that you do here is religious activity They are not real services So brothers and sisters this consecration is the first thing Christians must come to face it A redeemed one has to solve the problem of consecration So brothers I didn't say therefore apostles Therefore brethren All of the redeemed ones are brethren Therefore all of us must be constrained by the love of God to offer our body as a living sacrifice Dear brothers and sisters Have you solved this problem? If you haven't solved this problem don't even talk about service If you serve not only cannot serve God but you offend God Firstly we must solve the problem of consecration So as we offer our body as a living sacrifice We come to Romans 12 Do not conform to this world but be renewed by the renewing of your mind so that you can prove by testing what is that good and perfect will of God There is one thing marvelous As you offer your body as a living sacrifice Holy Spirit begins to transform your mind Formally your mind favors this world You conform to this world You follow the trend of fashion You love the world Your thoughts favor the things of the world You pay attention to those things For you to favor God's will You feel it rather difficult I remember in the past I asked young people What is God's will? They replied Whatever is opposed to my will is God's will You cannot regard God's will as being good being pleasant You feel God's will is awesome You are afraid of knowing God's will But at that time your mind is not yet renewed But thank God As you offer your body as a living sacrifice The Holy Spirit comes to transform your mind You look at the world Your views are changed Formerly you treasure it Now you regard it as dumb Formerly you regard God's will as being awesome Now you feel they are pleasurable You must prove it You want to speak after it And you want to agree with it Brothers and sisters Serving is to serve God's will If you do not know God's will How can you serve? You serve according to your own will This is like serving God Serving God is a loss So first our mind must be renewed This is according to our consecration Every time we have a deeper consecration before the Lord Every time our mind is renewed And we know better what God's will is Brothers and sisters Remember Serving is to serve God's will It is not to serve your will It is a wonder From Romans 12 to the 2nd chapter That one Kindness Pleasure Perfection God's will In Romans 12 too That which is good well pleasing and perfect God's will This will in the original language is singular As we consider God's will we consider them to be myriad upon myriad God has a will in this matter God has a will in that matter Can I do this today? Can I go to that place? Are they God's will? Many young people often ask What is God's will? I know not Because there are too many wills God's will in you is this way and another person may be another way The reason is here We haven't seen that singular will of God God has an all-inclusive will of all wills This will If you can prove it Then can you understand God's heart's desire among myriads of his wills Because among all of his wills in all the people They all issue from that one all-inclusive will of all wills What is this will? That is what Paul said He said that before the creation of the world God had set Ephesians 1 tells us Before the creation of the world God had set a purpose according to his own good pleasure What is this purpose? This purpose is to travel In other words God has set a singular will an all-inclusive will A will that never changes From eternal time to eternal life That will is about his son His son that his son would have all things, the will of God, that his son would be satisfied. Therefore God not only gave all to his son, but also among all creation he gave man to his son, that man would become his companion, that man would become his counterpart, to work with him, to have the same mind with him, to suffer with him and to be glorified with him. This is that singular, complete will of God. Brothers and sisters, according to Romans 12, we see, in verse 1, offer up your bodies to living sacrifice. These bodies are plural. Because you have your body, I have mine. Each one has his own body. So you offer your body, I offer my body. You need to allow the Lord to complete his work in you, I need to allow the Lord to complete his work in my body. God will complete his work through your body, and he will do his work through my body. So the bodies here are multitude. But when we offer all our bodies to the living sacrifice, we see that complete will of God. What is that complete will of God? Christ the head. We are members of his body. So in verse 5, it says we who are many are one body. And individually we are members, one of another. Brothers and sisters, you see here, when we rise up to serve God, we need to see our service is within the scope of the body. Christ is our head. This head will express itself through the members of the body. Through this body he will do what he wants to do. We are all members within this body. So our service now becomes the service of the body. It is not individual services. Yes, there are many members in the body. And God gave gifts to each member of the body. God has tempered the body. If he wants me to be a hand, then the Holy Spirit gives me the functions of the hand. As my hand is working through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as I serve, I serve the head. At the same time I serve the whole body. I am not here serving individually. I coordinate with all the other bodies to serve our head. So brothers and sisters, please remember, our service today is to serve God's eternal purpose. That is Christ to be preeminent in all things. Our service today is so that the body can build up itself in love, so that Christ can gain the bride that he wishes to gain. Today the church is the body of Christ. As this body grows up and matures and attains the full measure of the stature of Christ, our Lord will return to receive this body to be his bride, so that the Lord will be pleased. So you see our service today is the service in the body. We coordinate with each other to be members. And together we serve our Lord, our Head. There is no such thing as a long-ranger service. Service is in the body. Some brothers and sisters may ask, I don't know where the Lord has placed me in his body. Neither do I know what gifting the Holy Spirit has given me. So how would I serve? How can I serve in the body? How can I fulfill the function so that the body can build up itself in love? So that the Head's will can be accomplished. In reality it is rather simple. Just look at a newborn baby. God has given him a complete body. He possesses hands, legs, mouth, eyes. Once he is born, he possesses eyes. God has given him the gift of seeing. He has ears. Even when he is born, God has given him the gift of hearing. He has hands. God has given him the gift of handling things. God gave him feet. He has a gift to walk. It is not that after he is born, after a little while, he gave this gift to him, that gift to him. As soon as he is born, God has given everything. But once the baby is born, he has eyes but he sees not. He has hands but he cannot handle. He has feet but he cannot walk. It demands a growth of light. After he grows a few days, he can see light. Gradually he can discern a little bit more. Same with the hands, with the feet. In the beginning the child would crawl because he does not know how to walk. He thought to walk means to crawl. One day he discovered if he does not walk with his hands, he walks faster. So he did not use his hands and he walked with his feet. The more he walks, the more strength he receives. His hands could handle things. But if things are far away, he needs his feet to take him there. So you see that everything coordinates together to become a member of God. God has given everyone of us his desire of gifts. Even though gifts may be different, there is only one Holy Spirit. Administrations are different but there is only one Lord. Functions are different but there is only one God. As our life matures, all the gifts will be manifested naturally. The Holy Spirit will guide us within that you will pay attention to a certain aspect, that you would care, that you would receive a burden to serve. As you try it, anointing is upon you so that brothers and sisters will receive benefits. Gradually you will discover what your gifts are. So brothers and sisters, do not worry. God has tempered us in the body. Just remember one thing, our service today is a service in the body. To serve in the body then can we serve God's eternal purpose. Lord, our hearts are full of thanksgiving because the purpose that you have ordained for us is so pleasing. It is so glorious. You even saved us so that we can serve you and even to serve the eternal purpose. We thank and praise you. Now that we can do anything about that, you have given us your Holy Spirit. You gave us your Spirit. Through your Spirit, through the life of Christ, so that we can truly serve your purpose. All is great. All is given from you. Lord, we prostrate in worship. May you open the eyes of our hearts so that we may see how can we serve you, how can we worship you.