Let us open our Bibles now to the book of Joshua, chapter 5, verses 1 to 9. Let us read this responsively.
Joshua 5, verse 1: And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted; neither was their spirit in them anymore because of the children of Israel.
At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, “Make these sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.” And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.
And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise all the people that came out of Egypt, that were males: even all the men of war died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt. Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised.
For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord: unto whom the Lord sware that he would not shew them the land, which the Lord sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way. And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp till they were whole.
And the Lord said unto Joshua, “This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you: wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.”
The Lord add His blessings upon the reading of His most holy, inspired, and preserved Word.
We have gone through some doctrinal teachings on the basis of serving, and that is purely from God's Word. We cannot serve God any how we want. We cannot serve God the way the world teaches us. We cannot serve God as we conveniently desire to serve the Lord. It is always according to His Word. And then He sets us a pattern. There's a prescription. There is a pattern. The pattern is that we must serve Him with the fear of God in our hearts. We know that we cannot please Him without trusting and believing in Him and knowing Him. And so we have to have this fear. We don't want to offend God. We want to please Him always.
The only way by which we can really please the Lord in everything that we do is we do it by faith, for without faith we cannot please God. It is only by trusting in Him. And there were things that we may have done that were by our own strength, by our own will, without trusting in Him. We do it by our own way. God is not pleased with that, because that glorifies our name, that glorifies man, that glorifies the world. We have to fully submit to Him. That's why we have to love Him, and we can love Him because He loved us.
And this week is a good time for us to recall the great love of God, knowing that we cannot do things on our own. We cannot save ourselves. It is only by the Lord Jesus Christ. He sent His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for us to be saved. He came into this world, God in man, to offer Himself to die on the cross on behalf of sinful man. And because of what He has done for us, we can trust and have faith in Him that we are secured of that eternal life in Him as we put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have to teach our children. We have to continue on telling our family members, especially our own children, that they must believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can do this when we, as parents, are also truly saved. And I trust that it is always highlighted in the preaching and the teaching of God's Word in Bethel. So we know that you have that pure doctrine of faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to the Scriptures alone, for the glory of God alone.
With these doctrines, when we truly have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, we can give Him, offer Him sacrifices, our service. It may not be that great. It may not be that significant in the eyes of men, may not be something that men would praise, but if it is given truly for the glory of God, that is something that is special in the eyes of the Lord.
And that’s what we have to go through now in our necessities before serving—some requirements, practical things that we have to remember before serving as a family. And it’s important for us to have, really, a place. And thank God for providing a place for service in Bethel Bible Presbyterian Church. That is the place where God has given you. There are some people who are members of a church and they are serving another church. They are serving in some other organisations. They are active in them. God has given us a place in this church, and He has brought us into this church for a reason, and that’s why we have to give ourselves to serve Him in the place that He has assigned for us.
It is not for us to choose. It is God who chooses the place, as He has appointed a land of promise, a promised land for the Israelites. They were not asked by God, “Where do you want to go? Do you want to go to the southern part of Egypt or the northern part? Or to Babylonia?” No. They were assigned to one place. It was God who assigned them, who gave them the place.
And then, giving them the place, He also required them to have this promise. And the promise is that when they made themselves available, when they submitted to the will of God, they made themselves part of the chosen people of God in circumcision. And in our Christian context, as we have heard Pastor describe or explain to us last Sunday, it was really a good introductory part or sermon for us, and that was on baptism, where this is our New Testament Christian circumcision.
Also, we did not read it, but in verses 10 to 12 of this chapter, another sacrament is mentioned. In here is the Passover, which is continued until today, and that is on the Lord’s Supper. These are the practical things, the things that are required for us to submit. As we sang earlier, “All is on the altar.” And we have these sacraments that God has required for His people.
And this is to remind us how we belong to God. This reminds us of what God has done for us so that we can keep on serving Him. Without these reminders, we will have a pause or sometimes even a full stop in serving the Lord. These are important sacraments, means of grace for us to be strengthened, to be sustained, to abide in the Lord in our service for Him.
And then, God has assigned for us privileges to serve Him. He has placed in us specific assignments, specific places, specific appointments in the church where we can serve Him.
And these are the practical things that we have to look into that we might find ourselves serving the Lord. You know, there is a trend today in many churches, especially after COVID, that some people are just in their homes worshipping in their pajamas. It's okay for them to worship lying on their beds because, you know, it's the same worship, watching the pastor preaching in the comfort of their homes or rooms. That was a time during COVID, but some apparently have continued that practice, not wanting to go to church, not wanting to bother to attend worship service. After all, it's the same message we hear. We worship the Lord, we come before Him, and even the Lord's Supper is conducted virtually. These are some practices of churches. Thank God that we don't have it, and we come to church to worship Him. We have the Lord's Supper there in the church, and baptism also is not by virtue. It is actually there in the church. These are things that are neglected and conveniently availed by many people. They don't want to travel far; they don't want to be inconvenienced in traveling from their homes to the church, especially if they are far.
These are the things they do, but in the service of the Lord, we have to come to His place. We have to worship Him in spirit and in truth with the people of God, joined together to worship Him. And so, with that prescription and with that pattern, we are now going to go into some prerequisites in service. It's important that we have a place to serve. It's important that we promise to serve and seek God's privileges to serve Him. We have to look into these things in this message. First, the place. As I have mentioned earlier, it was God who appointed the place. They were not given the choice. They were not given the option of where to go, what is the promised land that they wanted, where they should live, or where they should settle. It was God who arranged, and it was arranged even before these people were born. We know that God had already promised Abram, "This is the place for your children, Isaac, Jacob, and the patriarchs, the ten children of Jacob." So, with that, it was God who appointed. It's important that in the service of the Lord, we seek God's guidance, leading, and counsel, of course from God's Word, on where we should serve Him. It is a choice of God, as we understand.
And here, they were given this place. God allowed them to enter. By the way, before this, they had just crossed the River Jordan. In chapter 4, they crossed the River Jordan in a miraculous way. It was dried up in several miles. Somehow, the water stopped flowing from the portion He called Adam, the city of Adam, towards the mouth of the Dead Sea. It was dried up. There was no water flowing, and they crossed. For them, it was impossible to cross at the very beginning because it was the time of the spring season, wherein the snow kept on melting in the mountains in the northern part of the River Jordan, and it flowed towards the Dead Sea. The River Jordan would be flowing or would be increasing in its width. It was impossible for them to cross. The current was strong. And so, God, by His appointment and in a miraculous way, allowed them to cross on dry ground. He stopped the flow of the water. It was a miracle, and they did it in a way where they trusted the Lord. God asked them to go, and by the time the priests who carried the ark of the covenant touched or just set their feet on the water, the water would stop flowing, and there was dry ground for them to cross.
And because of that, the people in Canaan were scared. They were afraid. "What is this kind of people that are now in our place? They are a people under the sovereign power of the mighty God!" You see there, the place, the River Jordan, was even dried up because of this God. And that's why, here in verse 1 of chapter 5, we see that their hearts melted. They were so scared. They were afraid of the people of Israel. It was God who arranged this. They were not a people who were warriors. They were not trained because when they left Egypt, they were just making bricks. And these people who crossed the Jordan, most of them were, and generally all of them, were born in the wilderness. When they crossed over, they were not trained to be warriors or fighters, but the people were scared because of what God had done for them, that they were about to conquer Jericho.
So, there was a place assigned by God for them, a place where God promised that they would live and that they would continue to prosper because the end sight of this plan was for the Messiah to come. It was not a blessing just for them. It was a blessing even up to this day for us. It was a blessing that was set by God to be a blessing not only for their own generation, but for the next generation, not only for the Jews, but even for the Gentiles. So, that's how God prepared a place for them. And every one of us in the family of God, or those who are truly born-again believers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we always have a place to serve. No Christian, no born-again believer, has no place of service in this world and even in the church. We are called. We are saved to serve. We are saved to serve. And because we are saved to serve, God has a place for us to serve.
And if God brought you into that church, into this church, into Bethel, then God has a place for you in this church to serve. You may think, "Where? How? What place? What ministry?" But God is not wrong. He is not mistaken in giving you this church. God has saved you, put you in this church. He has a place for you to serve. That's why no Christian is just sitting around doing nothing in the church. No Christian can say, "Oh, I am useless in this church," or "I am just a pew-warmer in this church." No Christian can be in a church to think, "Oh, I am just here, and giving tithes and offerings is all that is required of me." I have given my tithes and offerings. By the way, it's not that way. I just realised that last Sunday, with the high-tech offerings, you do it electronically. Back in Singapore, we used to go around and give our tithes and offerings.
But it is not enough. It is not that you have given your offerings and that is all that is required of me. There is always that service. By the way, your attendance is also a service. And I would encourage everyone: your attendance is already a service unto the Lord. You should not think, "Oh, you are just there to show the pastor that you are in the church on Sundays." Attendance is already a service unto God—an encouragement, a form of giving others the joy of seeing you and coming together to worship the Lord, hearing your voices in singing, reading the Scriptures, even smiling, and welcoming others into the church. This is already a big service unto the Lord if we do it heartily, sincerely, and of course, in faith.
So we thank the Lord for a place to serve, and we have to understand that because it is a place that God has given us to serve, we have to continue desiring to be used by God in this place. We have to look for opportunities by which we can serve. Surely there is a corner. There is a place that God has for us. There’s one person I knew of when he first came to True Life. He had difficulty. He said, "How, where can I serve? How can I serve?" And he thought, "Oh, every ministry, every work in the church, there are already people assigned, so I cannot get into this ministry. I cannot get into this assignment. I cannot do this work because there are already people assigned to do that."
But he was a man who, even though he had a problem, had a smiling face. Now, there are people who, even without smiling, look as if they are smiling. I have difficulty with that, because even when I smile in a family picture, my son will always ask me, "Father, can you smile a bit?" I tell him, "I'm already smiling." But there are people who have difficulty smiling, and I have to practice in front of the mirror. My son says, "You should smile when you preach, you look very angry." So, I have to face the mirror and practice smiling. But yes, most of the time my son would say, "Can you smile a bit?" This man, though, even if he had a problem, looked smiling. And when people came to him, they were encouraged because of his joyful countenance.
He made good use of his opportunity in serving, even in giving out the weekly bulletin. We worship not in a traditional church; we rented a place. People could see him and would be encouraged by the way he approached them. So, you see, these people who thought they had no place, found a place to serve God in a small way, and by doing so, they gave God the glory. That was encouraging to others in that simple manner. I know also of a man, though not from our church, but I read about him online. He wanted to be part of a choir. The problem was, he was tone-deaf. Even though he wanted to sing for the Lord, the choir master said, "Brother, I think this is not the place for you." But he really wanted to sing. He wanted to encourage people, but he couldn’t get the note. He said they came up with an idea: they could have a choir for the deaf ministry, where they could sing using sign language.
Okay, so they have now, yes, it's true, in Africa they have a choir that is for the deaf ministry. They use the signs, and so even if you are tone-deaf, you can be in that choir. I said, I maybe wish I had that because I'm always, you know, my son will also tell me, "Ah, you didn't hit that note." So when I sing, I try to sing softer. But that is an example; God has a place for everyone. I mean, that's just an example. Sometimes we think it's ridiculous, but that is how God can prepare a place for us. Even those who desire to sing and cannot hit the note, there is a place for them to encourage people, and they can sing.
And, of course, when they sing, they use signs to tell and give the message. They call it themselves a "talking hands" choir. So there's a place for us. Young people have a place. We see here how they serve the Lord. Even children can be trained when they are young on how they can serve the Lord in many simple ways. We have to serve as a family in the church, and with that understanding, we have these prerequisites given by God here before they can conquer the land and be in that place to further do the work of the Lord.
God told them to circumcise first. Baptism, I pray, all of us understand what infant baptism is. If you have questions on this, you can put them here for Pastor. So, we have to have this in here. It is said that God, the Lord, said unto Joshua, "Make thee sharp knives and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time" (Joshua 5:2). It is not the second time that they were circumcised already and then they will be circumcised again. This was a second event where they had to circumcise because the reason is given here in verse four, "And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise all the people that came out of Egypt, that were males: even all the men of war died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt" (Joshua 5:4). Now, all the people that came out were circumcised, but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way, as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised.
So here, God has highlighted and given the importance of circumcision. This circumcision was God's covenant for them—that they belong to God, that they belong to the Lord, that they are part of a chosen nation, that they are part of God's people, so that they can serve the Lord. This is a prerequisite for them—that they cannot serve the Lord if they do not renew and reconsecrate themselves in circumcision. And that is also true for Christians today. I pray that all of us understand what it means to have our children baptized. It is not for them to be regenerated, as we used to understand in Roman Catholicism, where there is baptismal regeneration. That is not the way. It is not to cleanse the baby as if so that he will have no sin and then he will start a new life. It is to make him a part of the covenant of God in the church—a familial covenant, a covenant of the family towards God.
And that's why the baby becomes a member of the church, non-communicant but still part of the church. The parents now have the role to pray and bring up these children, nurturing them to know and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ at their young age so that they will be part in serving the Lord. Let us understand this, and I pray all of us, as a family, bring our children to be baptized—our young children, infants—so that they become a part of the covenant of God. Yes, they are not saved by the baptism, but they become a part of God's promise, and that is important. We cannot serve God as a family if not all of us, if the family is not part of God's covenant. We have to be part of it. Baptism is very important. If we have to fulfill and follow God's righteous ways, we have to submit to baptism.
And I thank God for this sacrament of baptism. You know, I told you that I was working in a secular world, and it was difficult for me to live. At first, I was in the secular world working, and it was God's way of bringing me out of my country to a foreign place. At first, I did not want to go because, as I've shared with you, I was in the charismatic movement. I told my dean that it was my time to further my studies, and I said to her, "I don't need a doctorate to enter heaven." I was trusting that, you know, I'm already a Christian, a believer. I'm a charismatic Catholic. I speak in tongues. I lead in worship. I thought I was a pretty good Christian and could immediately enter His kingdom. But God had His plan. It was my time to go abroad, overseas, to further my studies because it was arranged by the university.
At first, I did not even want to go. It was in Japan. At first, I had hesitation because of the language barrier, and also I heard many stories in the past from my grandfather about how they had, you know, abused some people in the Philippines. I didn't want to go, but my superior told me that if I forfeited the scholarship, then others would not be able to avail of it. So, I went. We had just gotten married, and my wife remained in the Philippines while I went to Japan.
But when I got there, I wanted to bring in the Roman Catholic charismatic movement. But, you know, Roman Catholicism is a religion that really adjusts to the culture of the people. If people in the Philippines are lively and want the charismatic movement, they will give it. But when you go to Japan, their Roman Catholicism is as good as Buddhism and Shintoism—so silent, so cold, so ritualistic. I didn't want hymns that would encourage you to clap your hands or stand up. So, I was frustrated and disappointed. I went with some friends, husbands of the scholars there. Mostly the scholars were women, so the husbands worked in nightclubs during the night as bartenders. I went with them, and as was described this morning in our devotion, I was walking, or standing with them, sitting with them, and I realised I was already in their vices.
It was only when God showed me how evil I was, swallowing my own vomit, that I realised, "If I am like this, how can I enter heaven? How can I be welcomed by Peter?" I tried to revive my Roman Catholic fervor and zeal—prayed the rosary every day, went to mass every morning—even though I didn’t understand the priest as he spoke in Japanese. I still went there every Lord's Day, Sunday, and had to go to confession, the confession box, to tell all my sins because I was in a
I thought I had to make up for what I have failed. But then it was all failure. I thank the Lord for His grace and mercies. He sent someone to tell me about the Lord Jesus Christ. At first, it was a charismatic person, a Pentecostal person, but later a Bible-believing missionary who told me and explained to me the Bible, the Gospel, and I believed and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ. But it took a while for me to leave the Roman Catholic Church because when my wife, after a year, came in and then we had Thea inside the womb, I somehow compromised a bit because she was also fierce. When I read the Bible, she would take the Bible and throw it and not want me to become a Christian or to practice my Christianity. I can understand because she was also a devoted Roman Catholic. But when she prayed the rosary, I didn’t follow her. But sometimes when she went to Mass, I had to accompany her.
But it was in a time that I submitted myself for baptism that there was the third world war. She wanted to go back to the Philippines and separate. She said, "I cannot take it. We have been baptized as babies in the Roman Catholic Church. Why do you have to submit yourself for baptism?" But that also caused her to think, "If my husband sincerely has to follow this faith, what about me?" And I thank God by the mercy and grace of the Lord. When I was baptized, it was not me alone. She was there also with me. She came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank the Lord and I praise God that because of that grace, I was able to submit to this prerequisite before I could serve, to follow, and fulfill all righteousness—be baptized. My wife also came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and we were baptized together. We were in a Baptist church at that time. We were baptized in the sea. And I do understand that he said that if less water or more water, less faith, less water, more faith. I can say I have the least faith because I was baptized in the sea.
But I thank the Lord for this sacrament. It’s not just a kind of practice. It’s not something that we just follow because it is required by the church. It is indeed a sacrament, a means of grace that God has given us in order for us to serve Him fully. Baptism. And I thank the Lord that because of that, my wife and then my children also came to be baptized by them. By then, they were baptized in the Bible Presbyterian church. Thank God for that.
So that’s how important this sacrament is—how important it is for us to commit unto the Lord, following Him, publicly declaring, "I am of the Lord. I belong to Christ." This is baptism, a sign, a covenant that we enter into with the Lord so that we can serve Him. And we know that when we are baptized, we become a member of the church, where we can serve, where we can be a part of the church, where we can contribute to many ministries and whatever things we have to do in the church—baptism.
Another requirement here that God gave them was the Passover. You look at verses 10 to 12:
"And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho. And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the Passover, and unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day." (Joshua 5:10-11)
And this is continued now in the Christian faith as our Lord's Supper, the Holy Communion. And we do this not as a way of supplementing ourselves, as it is commonly known in some churches as a divine supplement, a divine vitamin. It is not something that would just strengthen us and make us healthy. It is to remember. And that’s what Paul says, and Jesus Christ says, "In remembrance of Me," in remembrance of what He has done, in remembrance of this whole Passion Week, in remembrance of how He resurrected from the dead, in remembrance of how He was promised, or He promised through the angels that He will come again to bring us up with Him. These are important sacraments, means of grace for us to continue serving the Lord.
Every time we come to the Lord’s Supper, we remember how the Lord Jesus Christ saved us. Every time we come to receive and partake of the bread and the cup, we remember how we are given this privilege to serve Him and even eternal life that He has for us. We have to do this, and that is what is required of them in the time of Joshua. We also are required in today’s context in our Christian faith. And through this, we will be given the encouragement, the strength to continue on, to move on, to serve the Lord.
The means of grace does not mean that when we receive the bread and the cup, we receive something of a special strength or favour from God. It is to remind us. It is to remind us. But this remembrance is not just a simple symbolic remembrance. We understand that it is a remembrance with spiritual meaning. When we come to the Lord Jesus Christ or we come to the Lord’s Supper, we know that when we partake of the Lord’s Supper, the bread and the cup, we ask for God’s cleansing, forgiveness of our sins, that we be made worthy to partake and worthy to serve. This is consecration, reconsecration of our lives to serve the Lord. That’s why these sacraments are given emphasis here. It was in the time of Joshua: circumcision and Passover. In today’s context, we have to know that it’s about baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We have to understand how God, in His own ways, arranged this for us to continue on to serve the Lord.
And there is a privilege by which we can serve the Lord. God has given us the Lord Jesus Christ and has indwelt us with the Spirit of God. We have the mind of Christ in order to know what, when, where, and in what way we serve the Lord. We understand in the further verses of chapter five how the captain of the host of the Lord appeared unto Joshua. This was actually to encourage him, because the next part in chapter six, they are going to invade or to fight against the city of Jericho, which was, in the sight of men, impossible for them to defeat, impossible for them to conquer. It was the presence of the captain of the host that encouraged them. And this is the privilege also that God has given us in service when we are in Christ in salvation. And in remembrance of what He has done for us, the promises we have, the privilege, and this privilege is given to us through His presence.
The Lord Jesus Christ promised that He will not leave us nor forsake us. The Lord also promised that the Spirit of God, the Comforter, will be with us, and He promised that He will be with us even until the end of this world (Matthew 28:20). So this privilege will help us to serve the Lord. Without the Spirit of God, we cannot be encouraged to continue on serving. Without our mind that is fully set on the Lord Jesus Christ, we cannot continue on moving and serving the Lord. There are many who fall in the way, many who are even in the ministry, who after years of service, just fall out, leave the ministry, do other things. It is quite sad because they are supposed to have given themselves and said that they are called of God. That’s why we have to keep on giving ourselves to be closer, to draw ourselves near unto God in every way so that we can continue and keep on serving Him.
And this privilege that He has given us is a wonderful way by which we can serve. We have to look and observe and see opportunities where we can serve the Lord. We should not be just bystanders. There is no, as they said, there are no people who will be on the bench when we understand the work of the Lord. Everyone is working. Everyone is participating. Everyone is involved.
I know of an old lady. We visited her many times and she was already in her bed. She could not get up because of the disease that she had. Yet she continued on to be part of the work. How? She always, when we came to visit her, we asked her, "What are your prayer requests? What do you want us to pray for?" She would tell us, "Tell us what the church or what you want me to pray for you." Very encouraging lady. Every time we came, we didn’t come just to pray for her. She would be asking us, "What are our prayer requests? What are the needs of the church? What are the things that she can pray for?" Because she said, "That’s the only thing that I can do," but she was involved in prayer, in the prayer ministry, even though she was already lying on her bed.
You see, we are not prevented by any physical circumstances or conditions in life. The Lord has for us a place to serve, a privilege to serve. That’s why I encourage everyone to find this privilege that God has given us, that we be encouraged to do this because it is for the glory of the Lord. And I pray that from this time onwards, there will be nobody among us who will just say, "I’m useless. I’m nothing. I cannot contribute anything." We have, in every part or in every ministry or in the church, a part and parcel of the work for the Lord. And we cannot desire for things that are not for us. We cannot envy others because they are assigned to that work or that ministry. God has a place. God has a privilege for us to serve, and therefore we just have to submit ourselves, humble ourselves to do that and be part of the work and the service of the Lord.
And when our children will see this, when our children will see parents humbling themselves to do this simple work, they will know, "Mom and Dad, somebody in the world, managers, CEOs, when they come to the church, they see how they humbly labour for the Lord in small things." They too will see how important it is for them to give themselves to labour for God, and they will actively participate.
When I was given the assignment to do some appointment or some work in the church as a student in FBC, I would bring my son with me to be early, to arrange. I was in the PA (not that I knew much of these technicalities), but I just set up the microphone and stand and all these things. Because of that, he learned, and now I thank the Lord that he is always there in that ministry, even waking up earlier than us. He wakes up very early at 6:00 AM to be there in the church at 7:00 AM, although the worship or the Sunday school will start at 9:00 AM, to set everything up for the church. He knew it well. He was aware of how it was done, and he knew that it was necessary for the church because he saw it even when he was still like six years old.
He knew, and he was acquainted with all this, that until now he loves to do it. And it is, of course, not set by my own example. It’s God who, by grace, gave him the desire. But it’s good that we can set some kind of demonstration of what it means to serve the Lord for our own children. We don’t need to wait until we become appointed as deacons or say, "I want to serve when I will be seen as one who is a leader in this ministry." "I want to be appointed to be one whose name should be printed, so I can serve." It’s not that way. We know that even when we are serving behind the curtain, nobody sees us, nobody knows us, the Lord knows, and that’s why we continue on trusting, giving ourselves for the Lord in service, and He is pleased, He is glorified.
But then we have to be part of the church. I believe all of us are already part members of the church and are in the role of the church wherein the pastor can call us and ask us to do something to help. And when he does this, we should be joyful and glad to do those things because we are not serving him. We are not serving anybody. We are serving God. That was also the case here of the people of the Lord in the time of Joshua when they were set up. A place was chosen for them, and they were required to do what was necessary for them before they could serve the Lord. And they did it. And when they did it, we know that the Lord used them mightily, and they were able even to conquer the mighty city of Jericho because of their submission to the will of God.
And that’s how we can go further in the ministry. Many things can be done when everyone’s hands are helping. When God uses our hands, our feet, our minds, our eyes, even our mouth in praising and praying, we can do many things. The Lord can do many things through us if we avail ourselves of these privileges that God has given us. And let us give ourselves to that. Let us not wait for sometimes, and that is also the accusation that was levelled against our pastor back in True Life. You will always hear, "Oh, the pastor is a one-man show." Of course, that member calls the pastor a one-man show because he did not lend a hand to help. The pastor was just accused of being a one-man show because he was not even there to help. He was not even there to extend himself. He was not even there to be part of the ministry. He just opened his mouth and criticised, saying, "This pastor is just a one-man show."
And I pray, and I know, and I trust that in this church, that is not the case. We are helping one another. We do not see the pastor as the paid labourer in the church. We do not see the pastor as somebody who is given. We come here to pay to give money in order to pay for the pastor to do all things in the church. We are here as the body of Christ. And as the body of Christ, we know we can be the eyes, the ears, the hands, and the feet. We have functions in order for the whole body to move on, and we pray that we can do that. We pray that the Lord will help us. We pray that this will be a time where we are called to recall and to remember what God has in place for us.
And it’s good for us to ask, "Why has the Lord brought me into Bethel BPC?" and to ask, "Lord, why in this church, and if this is the church that You want me to serve, where and in what capacity can I serve?" There are times that the Lord will test us. He may just tell us, "Okay, you can just arrange the tables or arrange the chairs or stock up the chairs later." Maybe it’s just a simple chore, but it is God’s way for us to test whether we are sincerely asking where we can serve. And I pray we are willing because we are not serving a man. We are not serving an organisation. We are serving the Lord of lords, King of kings. And that’s what we are going to talk about this evening—the reasons why we have to serve and why we need to give ourselves to serve the Lord. I pray the Lord will help us, guide us, lead us, and convict us.
Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we do thank Thee, Lord, for Thy word, and we pray, Lord, for Thy Spirit to work in each of our hearts this morning. We know that everyone is serving. We know that everyone is part of the church and is involved in the ministry of the church. But there are still other things, other ways, other ministries, other parts of the church where we can be involved to give You all the praise and the glory for the great things that Thou hast done in our lives. Father, help us to think of this, not just to come and be part of the ministry without being involved. We pray that we are active in the work because we know Thou hast done so great a work for us—saving us, giving us salvation, forgiveness of all our sins, preparing a place for us for eternity in Thy kingdom in heaven. So we pray, Father, that You will remind us, help us, O Lord. We pray and we ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen.