Good morning to you all. I trust that this morning as we enjoy this very nice cool breeze is moving through here to the surprise of some of us who had feared that this was going to be an unbearable day that we will be refreshed enough to take another session of study in the Word of God. Before we get underway in our studies, I'd like to peddle a couple of books. I'm not getting paid for this, but I think the service of Christian literature is a phenomenal dimension of the life of the church in the Western world. We ought to be grateful for the tremendous opportunities we have of good Christian literature. I was going to say something about Bill McDonald's commentary, but that's already been mentioned. Frankly, I think it would be an utter shame if our brother carries any of these books home unused. In fact, the price he's got is such that if I didn't have one, I'd be buying. But speaking of single volumes that are very, very valuable... There are two works today that are single-volume theology works, and one of them is available here in the bookstore. If you do not have a one-volume work in theology, conservative, biblical theology, your library is not very complete. If you've never learned to use and to appreciate a very concise, well-organized, single-volume work in theology, it's high time that you do. And whether it's Theson or whether it is this one by Charles Ryerie, I would highly recommend for those of you who really want to study the scriptures that you consider investing in a single volume work in conservative theology. This one is by Charles Ryerie who is well known for his writings. And I think that you will find this a very well-used book if you acquaint yourself with it and equip yourself with this. And then on the other extreme of the continuum in terms of size and cost, here's a little booklet. And there are a number of these over there. In keeping with some of the things we were talking about last night, this is Bill McDonald's book, There's a Way Back to God. If you've never read this, you've missed a little gem, a classic. And I would suggest that you ponder that book. There's a Way Back to God by Bill McDonough. Now this morning I'd like to invite you to turn in your Old Testament to First Kings chapter thirteen. While you're turning there to say again that in the studies that I will have with you we're focusing on the subject that I suppose is a bit presumptious. I would have not even thought of this in an earlier period of life. But as you walk with God day by day and year by year The Scriptures come to bear on your life in such a way that you come to realize that there are some pitfalls in growing older in the faith. The Psalmist likens the Scriptures to a lamp, to our feet, and a light to our path. When you walk in a dark place, one of the reasons why you like to have a light is if there are pitfalls in the way you can see them. You can't avoid them until you can see them. But I would like for us to ponder the subject of avoiding the pitfalls of growing older in the faith. Just a couple of comments about that. First of all, I'm glad there are some young people here. And notice we're not saying the pitfalls of being an older person. A lot of difference. We're talking about the pitfalls of growing older. And it is amazing as I look around and watch people and talk to people around me how early in life some of these pitfalls are reached. I have seen young people hit some of these pitfalls in their teens. We're talking about the perils of growing older, not of being old, of growing older in the face. The second comment I'd like to make by way of an overview is that, as I mentioned last night, I trust that this ministry will be life-affirming and not life-negating. I don't want to take the point of view of scolding or of throwing something at you from a high and mighty position, even though physically on this platform I'm higher up than you are. I'm one of those people who is conservative enough not to like the word sharing too much. But just call it preaching, call it teaching. I'm not impressed with all of the sharing terminology. But in a very real sense, this subject for me is a matter of sharing. Because the issues that we'd like to talk about this week are issues that the Lord has dealt with me about. And I would like to see this as a sharing. It is not as though I am impervious to these. Not by the wildest stretch of the imagination. I believe that any Christian can potentially be tripped up into some of these pitfalls. I think the enemy of our soul would love to strew our paths with issues like this. I think it's well if we read the scriptures carefully and let the light of the scripture focus on these pitfalls and let the truth of God arm us so that we can avoid the pitfalls of growing older in the faith. And I would like for us in this time of study together to consider the pitfall of spiritual jealousy or envy. First Kings chapter thirteen. The background is. Solomon's son Rehoboam was unwise. When he took the throne, he consulted the wrong group of people. Well, I should say he consulted two groups as a new king. And unfortunately, he listened to the wrong group. And instead of responding to the appeal of the people in the nation to lighten their burden of taxation, he, like a young upstart, threatened them with even heavier burden of taxation. And all of the northern tribes split away. They They rebelled against the Davidic throne. They separated in a great movement of secession. And never again to this day has the nation been put back together. Tragic day in the history of Israel. When the nation split and the northern tribes broke their allegiance to the Davidic throne, the scriptures remind us that there was a form of civil war going on through the entire remainder of the history of those two nations. It was a dark day when the nation split. And there was a man, of course, ready to stand in this opportunistic moment. His name was Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. The scriptures again and again describe him as Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that caused Israel to sin. And Jeroboam had been an officer in Solomon's army. He didn't like Solomon's policies. He defected and went to Egypt. But now he came back at an opportune time to take leadership of these northern, break-off, seceded tribes. And he set himself up as king. He set up spurious places of worship. Vershiv in the south. I mean, Bethel in the south. And Dan in the north. Set up his own priesthood. And from the beginning, the northern kingdom was apostate. Apostate. And of course, Jeroboam himself had some very evil influence upon the professing people of God. And early in the chapter, God had sent an unnamed prophet. to speak against Jeroboam and to speak against his wickedness and to speak against his idolatrous temples and his false religion that he had established. And you remember that when this man spoke against him, Jeroboam, the king of Zeru said, Seize him. And the scriptures say as he even stretched forth his hand, it withered. It became locked in its place. And the king who had ordered this man to be seized ended up pleading and begging with the prophet to call upon his God to restore his hand to him. And God did it. Our God's a remarkable God, isn't he? And God did it. And then we pick up the reading in chapter thirteen in verse seven. Then the king said to the man of God, Come home with me. Refresh yourself and I will give you a reward. But the man of God said to the king, If you were to give me half of your house, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place, for so it was commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, You shall eat no bread nor drink water, nor return by the way which you came. So he went another way. He did not return by the way which he came to Bethel. Now an old prophet was living in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the deeds which the man of God had done that day in Bethel. the words which he had spoken to the king. These also they related to their father. And their father said to them, Which way did he go? Now his sons had seen the way by which the man of God who came from Judah had gone. Then he said to his son, Saddle the donkey for me. So they saddled the donkey for him, and he rode away on it. And so he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. And he said to him, Are you the man of God who came from Judah? He said, I am. Then he said to him, Come home with me and eat bread. And he said, I cannot return with you, nor go with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. For a command came to me by the word of the Lord, you shall eat no bread nor drink water here. Do not return by the way which you came. And he that is the old prophet said to him, I also am a prophet like you. And an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water. but he lied to him. So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water. Now it came about as they were sitting down at the table that the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back. And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah saying, Thus says the Lord, because you have disobeyed the command of the Lord and have not observed the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you. but have returned to eat and eat and drink bread and drink water in this place in which he said eat no bread and drink no water your body shall not come to the grave of your fathers and it came about after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk that he saddled a donkey for him for the prophet whom he had brought back now and they had gone a lion met him in the way and killed him and his body was thrown on the ground road and the donkey standing beside it and the lion also was standing beside the body And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown on the road. And the lion standing beside the body, so they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived. Now when the prophet who brought him back from the way heard it, he said, It is the man of God who disobeyed the command of the Lord. Therefore the Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke to him. Then he spoke to his son, saying, Saddle the donkey for me. and they saddled it and he went and found his body thrown on the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside the body the lion had not eaten the body nor torn the donkey so the prophet took up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey brought it back he came to the city of the old prophet to mourn and to bury him and he said as he laid his body in his own grave and they mourned over him saying alas my brother And he came about after he had buried him, that he spoke to his son, saying, When I die, bury me in the grave which is in which the man of God is buried, lay my bones beside his bones. Let's pause again a moment to pray. Father, these are sobering words from the Scripture. We read an account like this, scarcely able to believe that such an event would ever take place. We pray that you will give us understanding, that our hearts might be sensitive to that which you would teach us in the Scriptures, and that we might be made very keenly aware of the pitfall of spiritual envy and jealousy, and that you will prepare us to avoid it. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, if we read the scriptures correctly, it becomes very, very apparent that God places a high premium on old age maturity. Unlike our culture, we have a cult of youth going in the Western world. I think it's one of the greatest idolatries of our Western world. It's a cult of youth. But the Word of God teaches us that age has its prerogatives. The gray head is to be honored and respected. The Bible teaches us that age has experience and wisdom. In fact, the whole setting of this event, which we read here, came out of the folly of Rehoboam listening to young rather than old counselors. Not only that, the Scriptures teach us that age has its unique ministries. There are things that people can do in their mature years that would not realistically have been open to them as potential ministries in their youth. But age has its peril. And unfortunately, as we read the account of many lives in the Scripture, we find that many, many people, even when they began well, did not end up well spiritually and morally speaking the pitfall of spiritual jealousy is a very significant one I recall some years ago when we started fellowshiping with an assembly in the Chicago area there were a number of things immediately that struck me about that assembly it's a very very positive features and they were wonderful years of fellowship and service to God. But one of the things that stood out to me in that assembly was that there was a whole generation of men that were absolutely silent. They may have as well had their tongues cut out of them physically. They were there every time the door was open. They came to men's business meetings. It was a matter of working on the roof or working on the shrubbery. They were there in force. They had good testimonies in their work and in their homes. As I cultivated a friendship with each of these, which I did systematically, we could have good personal fellowship in the things of Christ. I would go to their homes, I would hear them pray, and yet in the assembly, they were as silent as though their tongues had been cut out of them. In fact, it's very interesting when it came to the leadership of the assembly, in one period of eleven months we lost six out of our seven elders. And the Spirit of God had to jump over a whole generation of men in that assembly and put the mantle on the shoulders of some of us young upstarts who weren't dry behind the ears yet. And that always puzzled me, and it took a long time for me to find out what had happened. And years before, when these men were in their youth, there were a couple of hard-minded old brothers that nipped every stirring in these young men in the bud. And they succeeded in leaving the assembly with a whole generation of silent priests that should have been participating. A whole generation. They were eminently successful. The story we've read here is an astounding one. I must admit, these are passages of scriptures that as I read... I always find myself praying, Lord, please, don't direct me to preach on a passage like this. It's too delicate. It's too difficult. It's too involved. It's too upsetting to me. But it stands as a classic illustration of the pitfall of spiritual jealousy. And so I'd like to just point out several things here. Now, we're not going to spend our whole time in this passage. We're going to move to a positive passage. But we need to take a look at this because it's the kind of thing that I fear has been repeated in the history of the people of God, not only in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament church as well. We're going to focus on the old prophet in Bethel. Notice, first of all, the inactivity that marked his service. The inactivity that marked his service. The scriptures say he was a prophet. But there is not one syllable in the word of God about anything that he accomplished for God. Nothing is said about his activity. He was sitting silent amid flagrant apostasy. Bethel was the town, southernmost town in the northern kingdom, in which a false temple had been reared by Jeroboam. A golden bull was there to be worshipped. A new priesthood had been established. The vitical priests all left the northern kingdom. They were suddenly out of work. And they went down into the southern kingdom. And amid flagrant apostasy, this old prophet sat in silence. Why? I'm not sure. Maybe he had become weary and well-doing. Maybe he had been threatened. Maybe the don't rock the boat mentality had seized his mature year. We really don't know. And so it's dangerous to try to speculate motives. But the biblical record leaves us with the clear impression that this man, although a prophet of Jehovah, sat silent still in a needy mission field. Notice the second thing about this old prophet, the animosity that seared his spirit. Verse thirteen. I would love to have heard today that his sons came home. Kid, you should have been in the town square today. You missed it. And with all of the enthusiasm, no doubt of their youth, they recounted why this man appeared. He had made his way up from Judah. How he got across the border, I don't know. But there he was when Jeroboam was in formal procession. Oh, Dad, you should have heard it. Wow, that man dared to speak out against that evil king publicly. Oh, it was marvelous, Dad. You should have heard it. You should have heard it. And Jeroboam stretched out his hand and said, See, and Dad, you know what happened? His hand was lost and withered in midair, and he couldn't even draw it back again to his body. God judged the man, our king, right in public. Oh, you should have seen it, Dad. And then Jeroboam began to plead and to beg, called upon your God to restore him. Oh, Dad, you should have seen it. You should have seen it. And after the Lord healed the king. You know what? Ha. It's like winning the lottery, Dad. Jeroboam offered him to come to his personal home for a reward. And guess what? This stupid guy declined. He turned down the chance of a lifetime. And he said publicly that the Lord had warned him that he shouldn't eat here or drink here, that he should even go home by a different road. And he was gone. left everybody standing in awe. Oh, Dad, you should have seen it. You should have seen it. But the enthusiasm of his sons was not shared in the same way by the old prophet. Immediately there was an animosity that seared his spirit. Saddle my ass. Warm up the car, boys. I'm going after him. Now, I don't know what goes on in the heart of a believer in moments like this, but whatever happened was a tragedy. He had taken no action against Jeroboam, but he was ready to move out against the younger man of God. He couldn't rejoice in the fruitfulness of another man's ministry. And he set out in a purpose to bring this man down. And so the third thing we see about this old prophet is the tragedy that crowned his success. He found this young man resting momentarily. And he heard the story for himself from this younger prophet that the Lord had told him not to eat there or to dwell there, to stay there. And then the old man lied to this younger man. said I to him a prophet. Now that was true because God calls him a prophet, but the rest wasn't. The rest was a lie. And he said to him, lying, the Lord has told me to come and get you and invite you to come to my house. And after all, it's a long trip. You're going to be weary. You need to be revived and refreshed. I'm a man of God. The Lord has told me to come and get you to come to my house. And the young man was off his guard of course with a fellow prophet. And in his admirable naivety, he went. But even while they were eating in this old prophet's home, the old prophet delivered the message of judgment to him. Things like this, folks, leave my mind reeling and staggering. How in one moment the old prophet could be lying to this younger man in his animosity against his success, quote and unquote, and moments later be speaking his judgment. But it was so. And as the younger prophet went on the way, a lion tore him and killed him. And as the judgment of God had been pronounced, his body was never buried in the family cemetery. It was buried up there in the northern kingdom. We can silence a testimony that condemns us. You know, the tongue is a tremendous weapon. And sometimes not necessarily the outright condemnation, but sometimes playing down the keenness of another can be one of the most vicious weapons in human experience. It is well that the Scriptures warn us about keeping our tongues. It is well that James tells us that the tongue is a very small member of the body, but like the rudder of a ship or like the bit in the horse's mouth. It can determine the whole direction we go. You've heard of people being damned by faint praise. All sorts of expressions that come to us. We can silence a testimony that condemns us. And this old prophet succeeded. I remember the silent generation of men in the assembly that we participated in for many years. They're all in glory now, all that generation. It's amazing. The tragedy that crowns such success. The next thing I want you to notice, however, is the agony that broke his heart. Verse twenty-nine. He went and retrieved the body of this young prophet and brought him back. And in the process of burying this young prophet in his own grave, there was mourning in that burial. morning now even as I read this I have a hard time letting my emotions shift back and forth from the lie and deceit which brought that young prophet back to the word of the Lord issue which pronounced his doom the success of finally and faithfully closing the mouth of a more active, a more vigorous, a more successful, quote-unquote, younger prophet, and then to mourn him. And the old prophet said to his sons, When I die, lay my bones beside his bones. I would count it in honor, boys, if when I die, you lay my bones by him. the agony that broke his heart. Nothing succeeds like failure. It was too late. He had silenced the younger man, more devoted, and more obedient than he himself was. There was repentance, as I see it in this. And yet in his repentance, he identified with the man, with his message, and with his ministry. but it was too late he had silenced a useful tongue a tongue useful to God he had snuffed out the zeal of a younger life that was given in service to Christ nothing succeeds like failure but praise God there is a better picture in the scripture And while this kind of thing may happen many, many times, obviously this pitfall is one better avoided. Because I fear that in many, many, many cases, unlike what we were talking about last night in leaving your first love, we said the language of that passage is very significant. The Lord Jesus does not indict the church at Ephesus for losing their first love, even though that's the way it's quoted sometimes. If you lose something, you may or not regain it. But if you leave something, you can always go back. And our God is a pardoning God. And as Isaiah said to the nation, Let us return unto our God, for he will abundantly pardon. And the three imperatives that the Lord Jesus gave to the church of Ephesus. Remember. Repent. and do the first works, can bring any believer with an honest heart back into a place of vibrant, warm fellowship with the Lord Jesus. But the pitfall we're talking about today is not so easily remedied. And sometimes in our spiritual envy, we silence the tongue for good. That's serious business, folks. It's solid business. Prevention far better than cure. But a refreshing change, turn to the Book of Numbers. Numbers Chapter Eleven. We find in this chapter that some interesting things had taken place in the history of Israel. Moses had been burdened with the responsibility of leadership in the nation. The probably two, two and a half million people that he was leading were a stiff-necked people. They'd been a mob of slaves. They had sunk into paganism in those years there in Egypt. And the Lord had a tremendous task to accomplish out there in the wilderness. He had to hammer a mob of slaves into a nation. He had to give a lawless people a law. He had to take a confused and spiritually benighted and mixed up people and reveal himself to them and draw them to himself and unite them to himself. Tremendous task. And it was an awesome task for one man in leadership. And so the Lord instructed Moses to choose seventy men from the nation that would share the responsibility of leadership with him. And then at an appointed time, these seventy men were invited to a meeting. And while the Lord didn't tell Moses, as far as we know, what would happen there, it was the purpose of the Lord in bringing these seventy men that were now appointed to share in the leadership of the nation into this place, that the Lord was going to put His Spirit upon them. A classic, a basic necessity. for leadership in the purposes of God. The presence, the operation, the working of the Spirit of God in one's life. Only sixty-eight of the seventy made it there. Now I am assuming that Eldad and Medad, who were the two that didn't make it to the meeting, had a good reason. They were still on the camp for some reason or other. A sick baby, or who knows what? We don't know what. Some reason or other, they didn't make it to the meeting. But when God poured out His Spirit upon the seventy men who had come, sixty-eight men who had come to the meeting, He also graciously poured His Spirit on the two men who had been appointed to leadership that for some reason or other didn't make it to the meeting. And they were out in the camp. And they began to prophesy. And suddenly, just like a, suddenly like a tidal wave of gossip, rumbling through the kids, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp. The Spirit of God has moved on these men. They are prophesying. And just like rolls of thunder, the word spread through the camp of Israel. Eldad and Medad are prophesying. Now, in their naivety, they didn't realize that sixty-eight other men in the nation had also had the Spirit of God bestowed upon them. But you see, they were in the meeting. They hadn't had a chance to observe the change in their lives yet. But they saw El-Dad and Medad, and the word spread fast. Now notice what we say. Verse twenty-seven. And the young man came and told Moses and said, El-Dad and Medad are prophesying in the camp. Then Joshua, the son of Nun, right-hand man of Moses, sharing the spotlight with Moses, from his youth answered and said, Moses, my Lord, restrain them. Tell them to stop. But I love this. Verse twenty-nine. But Moses said to him, Joshua, are you jealous for my sake? Now let's just pause there for a moment. Let's ponder the question of this older saint of God. as he directed it toward Joshua. Joshua, for whom are you jealous? You don't want these men to share the spotlight of leadership. You don't want these men to be seen as men upon whom the Spirit of God has come and who are able to prophesy and minister to the people of God. You've asked me to stop them. Joshua, are you jealous for my sake? Now Joshua never did answer this question, but I am sure that there were some answers generated in his heart. But Moses, the man of God, went on to say, Joshua, it's for my sake you're speaking, then let me give you my perspective. Would... That all of the Lord's people were prophets. And that he would put his spirit on all of them. You'll know where I am. That's where I am. I wish not just seventy. I wish that they were all prophets. And that the Lord would be free to pour his spirit on all of them. You see, Joshua didn't need to be defensive for Moses' sake. Moses was not only willing, he was eager to share the spotlight of leadership. Because he had felt the burden of leadership. And he had lived with the awesome sense of responsibility. in leadership and in that he had seen his own limitations and he was glad that God has put his spirit on seventy other men but Joshua had a hard time with this up to that point he had been number two in the nation He had shared the spotlight with the great Moses. And now the light had to be more broadly diffused to include not two men, but seventy-two. Joshua, are you jealous for my sake? Not for my sake, Joshua. I would that all the Lord's people were prophets. and that he could put his spirit on all of them. There is the spirit of God at work in a man's life. There is the truth's perspective of spiritual leadership. A readiness to see God work and reach out into other lives. and empower and enable others and to use others and to put others in a place of influence and to speak through others and to impact a nation through others that's the heart of Moses and that's what we need in our assemblies folks that's the heart of an elder a true elder That's the heart of a mother in Israel. Would to God that all of the Lord's people were prophets. Would to God he could work this way to every one of his people, everyone. You see, this is the spirit of encouraging the work of God in others. not nipping it in the bud. This is the spirit which reflects the heart of God, who in every generation is going to work to raise up leadership, who in every age among us has given gift to his people. These young people sitting here among us today, if they're believers, they have spiritual gifts. I hope we recognize that. We have all sorts of ways of reflecting our tunnel vision. One of the most tragic expressions I have ever heard among the assemblies of God's people, I have heard uncounted times, oh, he has no gift, which means he doesn't have the gift of gift. Now, mind you, folks, not even the young men among us necessarily have to have the gift of gift. And by the way, the gift of gab is not necessarily spiritual gift. Although I wonder sometimes if the Lord's people have the discernment to know the difference, to tell you the truth. But think of one believer saying two or about another, oh, he has no gift, just because he is not eloquent in the pulpit. Folks, that's a lie. My Bible says every believer has gift. Doesn't yours check it? All the key passages of spiritual gift. Romans twelve. First Corinthians twelve. Ephesians four. First Peter four. All these key passages on spiritual gift make it crystal clear that every true believer has spiritual gift. And where we get this cliche, oh, he has no gift. I don't know. But I know individuals who have been crushed to tears. Because that's been said about them. That's only one of many illustrations we could give. Ah, wait a minute. Listen to the voice of the man of God. Joshua, don't envy for my sake. Joshua, I am so eager to share the burden of leadership. I am so grateful that God has moved to raise up men who will carry this burden. Joshua, this is so needful in the life of this nation. Joshua, it is so gratifying to me to hear that the Spirit of God is moving in other lives. Oh, Joshua, don't be envious for my sake. Seventy-seventy-two. Oh, no, Joshua. I wish all two and a half million people had the Spirit of God on them. The whole bunch. God bless them. The pitfall of spiritual envy and jealousy is one of the pitfalls of growing older in the faith. And sometimes when I hear people say, and mind you, I've served as an elder in assembly for many years. I struggle with the issue of leadership. I must confess to you right now. I look and I say, I've been in the Saddle of D'Amaz too long, and I'm praying and praying and pushing our trustees to get somebody younger in there. I really believe that God delights to raise up servants among those who are still young and active and vigorous. I believe that. I believe God loves young people and uses them. But I want to tell you, we've got to work at it, folks, because the natural human spirit is to guard our turf and to feather our own nest and to protect our own flanks and to build our own empires the pitfall of spiritual jealousy. Not so, says dear old Moses. I would, that all of the Lord's people were prophets. And if that's the bend of our heart, then the focal point of our lives, our attitudes, our influence on others will be different. Oh, we need to be discerning. We need to realize that people need to mature into responsibilities. Oh, we're not talking about laying hands suddenly on anybody. We're not talking about cultivating a cult of youth. No, no, no. We're not talking about getting away from biblical principles. No, no, not at all. Nor are we talking about making older people useless. Not at all. We're talking about the bent of mind. and the zeal of spirit that encourages others to come along and to mature and to cultivate gift and to use their gift and to be used of God. That's what we're talking about. And that bent of mind to commit ourselves to disciple and to encourage and to teach and to lead along and to pass the mantle along. to avoid the pitfall of spiritual jealousy. Remember the old prophet. But remember the man of God, Moses, who said, Don't be jealous for my sake. Don't be envious for my sake, Joshua. You want to know where I stand? Good to God that all the Lord's people are prophets. Every last one of them. and that his spirit was upon them all. Do you know, folks, that has become a reality in the church? The thing that Moses desired for his people in the nation that he so dearly loved and led, that has become a reality in the church. His spirit is upon everyone. And that gracious spirit has given gift to everyone. There is no need for bench warmers in the church. There is no need for Sunday morning only meeting attenders in the church. God has put His Spirit within everyone and has given gift to everyone. Think of what a task we have of leading and cultivating and encouraging and utilizing. The very thing that the heart of Moses longed for. Every one of the Lord's people, serving him in the energy and option of the Spirit. That's what the local church ought to be like. Moses desired it. We've got it. What are we?