Every believer has a divinely assigned task to perform as they await the Lord's return, a concept illustrated by Jesus' parable of the master leaving his servants in charge. This responsibility extends beyond personal conduct to active service, as highlighted in 1 Thessalonians 4, where waiting for Christ involves walking pleasingly to God and working diligently. The diversity of spiritual gifts, as detailed in 1 Corinthians 12, ensures that each member of Christ's body is equipped for their specific role, emphasizing interdependence and mutual care. Ultimately, believers will give an account for how they have fulfilled their assigned tasks, with works being tested by fire (1 Corinthians 3) and rewarded accordingly at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5). Therefore, believers are called to earnestly seek and faithfully execute their God-given assignments, whether in local ministry or global missions, for the building up of the church and the spread of the gospel.
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We would indeed ask for your prayers as we return shortly to Zaire. God willing, two months from today we will be in Africa back to Yankundi for a time of visiting with the Christians there. I'd like to read a verse in the Thirteenth Chapter of Mark, Mark Thirteenth. For the Son of Man is like a man taking a far journey, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work.
And commanded the porter to watch. The New International Version says this, and I say this because perhaps the masculine word there, man might be confusing to some. That is, of course, man and woman, actually. That's the expression in some of these languages, like in French. If we have both man and woman involved, the word we use in French is the masculine. Nevertheless, the woman is involved. And so in this thirty-fourth verse, to every man his work, and here's what NIV says, it's like a man going away. He leaves his house in charge of his servants, each with his assigned task.
Now I realize that this verse is in a connection with the coming of the Lord Jesus in glory, as we have in the twenty-sixth verse, when he is coming in the epiphania, the coming in the manifestation of the Lord Jesus in glory. But I also notice that when we have reference to the coming of the Lord Jesus for his saints, for the rapture which we're waiting for now, there's the same type of injunction to be active for him. But this is my key verse, if you like, to every man his work. The Lord's gone, taking a far journey.
He's left his house and responsibility, and he's given to each his assigned task. Now read with me in First Thessalonians chapter four, well-known passage concerning the rapture, concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus for his people, that for which we await. In First Thessalonians chapter four, the message of working as well as waiting is there. As we were saying in First Thessalonians one, you've turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven.
Even Jesus who delivered us from the wrath to come. And so we have in this First Thessalonians chapter four, it starts out with this, furthermore, then we beseech you brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God. Our waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus involves our walk, our conduct, and our work. And so as we go through these verses that precede the passage that's so precious to our hearts concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus for his own, for example, we have this verse in verse nine, as touching brotherly love, we need not that I write unto you, for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
And indeed you do it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But beseech you, brethren, that you increase more and more, that you study to be quiet and to do your own business, to work with your own hands as we command you, that you walk honestly toward them that are outside, that you may have lack of nothing. And then he goes into these wonderful verses that have to do with the coming of the Lord Jesus. I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them who are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even of others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also who sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them who are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. To every man his work. As we await the coming of our Lord Jesus, each one of us has a task to perform. The Lord has given us not only the task but the ability to perform it. Some of us are piloting airplanes.
Some of us are going out with our scalpels and our needles, our syringes for injection. Some of us are going out in our school to teach the young people. And in this land, tasks to perform and ability to give them given by the Lord to perform the tasks because the Lord's coming. Is it because we're getting older that we feel it's nearer than ever before? One way or another, very soon we are going to be in the presence of the Lord. And what a glorious, blessed, hope this is ours, that he is coming.
Read with me first also in First Corinthians chapter twelve to every man his work. Verse four, there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit, differences in administration, but the same Lord. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all. Given to every man to profit. Verse eleven, all these worketh that one and self-same spirit, the very same spirit, dividing to each man severally as he will.
Verse eighteen, God hath set the members, every one of them, in the body as it hath pleased him, every one, in the enablement of the Holy Spirit of God. placed in the body for a task to perform, and given ability to perform. God's calls are God's enablement. He sends us forth into distant lands, perhaps with the gospel, and his is the enablement. Our Lord Jesus is with us, and the enablement of the Holy Spirit is there. God has set the members, every one of them, in the body as it has pleased him. And verse twenty-two, Those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary.
They have tasks to perform too. They may feel that their tasks are not spectacular tasks, and yet they're essential tasks. Verse twenty-five, that there shall be no fism in the body, but the members should have the same care, one for another. Now then, verse twenty-seven, you're the body of Christ, and members in particular. What a wonderful way for the body to be built up by the action of those who are enabled, the members in the body to function. I have a task to perform and the Lord gives me the enablement to do it.
I look to him for strength day by day to do it and praise God for it. And each one of us as believers know the task to perform. Perhaps we don't clearly discern it, and we're searching to find a little better what we can do. But remember, every member of the body has a function to perform in the human body as well as in the spiritual body, the body of Christ our head. And we have care for one another. I feel that as we go out to the mission fields, we go out as being apart. of a commending assembly, if you like.
It's an extension of the same work. This we feel is an important understanding of the idea of commendation. We go forth, we have the right hand of fellowship of the saints of God in a commending local church, and we go forth as representing that church as well. We have a sense of responsibility in keeping that commending assembly informed as to what we're doing, and to be in contact that we may continue to work in accordance with that commendation which they have given to us for the work. If the local assembly is failing in its task, we're weaker on the mission field.
Or shall I put it in a wider way? That which concerns the Lord's people in this country concerns the Lord's people overseas, because it's one body, and weakness here affects us there, and weakness there affects you here. We have care one for another. When we're hurt yonder, when we hurt yonder, in the colloquial way of saying it, when we hurt yonder, you hurt here, because we are one. in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have care and concern for one another. And there are ways you can help us out on the mission field, as our brother has mentioned, by prayer.
And we can pray for you back here. We need to know about things to pray for. We appreciate correspondence. We appreciate letters. And I'm saying we in the sense of all of us as missionaries on all the fields of the world. We like to hear from you. We like to know some of the things we can pray for. And you get your missionary prayer handbook, and that starts you off, and you may be in contact with a worker here or there. But for us, it's every man, every woman, his or her task to perform. In a local level, in the local assembly, in a wider level, as being a part of the body of Christ, interested in the going forth of the gospel to the uttermost part of the world.
It may be that there are some in our company who are exercised about going to the far corners of the world with the gospel. Praise God for this. This is what the Lord has said. This is the Lord's great desire that we who know the word should go forth and give it to those who perish in their sins, not knowing the Lord Jesus as Savior. And now look with me in Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians four. Verse fifteen. Speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things who is the head, even Christ.
from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplied, according to the effectual working, and the measure of every part, make an increase of the body to the edifying or the building up of itself in love. This is God's way for the growth in the body or the building up of the church. Oh, that our hearts might be knit together with great love in these days. We may function each one in the part the Lord has given us to do. The Lord believed very greatly in the sense of interdependence in connection with the commended worker.
Those of us on the field depend on you, and you here depend on us. We are working together. And if you're not in contact with a missionary directly, get into contact with a missionary or a missionary's and write to them, fellowship with them in prayer, and tell them of your fellowship. So these two verses I read, I'd like to emphasize the whole body is strictly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies. to everyone, to every man, to every woman, a task to perform, or that we might know what it is to perform this task.
And I must say that as we've been here at Park of the Pounds, we found that many of you know your task, you who live here, who are in fellowship here, you know your tasks, and you make the stay of guests a very pleasant one indeed. And we thank God for the times we've spent in the dining room and we've spent in fellowship in speaking with folks out on the ground. There's a sense of fellowship here and a sense of working together. And we thank God for the great time we've been having together in things spiritual in this week we've been together. I'd like to say too that As I've introduced this in connection with the coming of the Lord Jesus, I'd like to say that there is a rendering of accounts when the Lord Jesus comes.
When He comes, we're going to tell what we've done with our time and how we've performed the task which He's assigned to us. So I could say briefly, I could say we have a task to perform, now is the opportunity to perform the task and the day of reckoning is coming when the Lord Jesus comes and we're going to give an account to him as to what we have done in the time that he has been away. I'd like to look at a verse in the second epistle to the Corinthians. Corinthians chapter five, yes, five first of all.
At verse ten. Second Corinthians chapter five and verse ten. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad. So we have in the presence of the Lord a time when there is going to be a reward for the tasks that we've performed.
The judgment seat of Christ, the bema, the verse in Mark thirteen had to do with the Lord's going and assigning to each one a task to perform. But the Lord is going to return and he's going to ask us what we have done, and he himself is going to know and tell what we have done. I'd like to read, too, in First Corinthians chapter three, another in this connection, the coming of the Lord Jesus and the judgment seat of Christ. I believe that very shortly after the coming of the Lord, it's going to come our standing before the bema.
It's not judgment in the sense of judgment for sin. It's not at all to do with our salvation. It has to do with rewards for what we have done in the past which has been given to us. First Corinthians three and twelve. Now, if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest. For the day shall declare it. because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall test every man's work of what sort it is.
If any man's work abide which he hath built upon it, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss. But he himself shall be saved, yet as by fire. When the Lord Jesus comes with those eyes of fire, And he looks upon the tasks that we have been given to perform and the measure in which we have performed them faithfully. He's going to look to see what is the character of the work we have been doing as we've been serving him while we await his return. And if the character of our work is gold, silver, precious stones, there's to be great joy in the presence of the Lord.
the Lord is going to say, well done, now good and faithful, sir. As I've spoken to some of these men who've come to know the Lord Jesus out there in Africa, such as my friend Ocalufu, the cannibal who was saved, or my friend Marcel Kimareki, the man with the Alaphontias' legs, who went to a tribe that had never heard the gospel and gave his life bringing the gospel to that tribe, although he had these tremendous Elephantias' legs and stayed with them in the tribe even when famine came, carried on with them serving in the gospel.
And now he's in the presence of the Lord. Oh, I would like to be right there when the Lord speaks to Marcel Kimareki. I know how he gave himself to God. I know his suffering. I know the poverty he experienced in his life. He had so little of this world's goods. And yet that whole tribe of the Walasi, when they speak of Marcel Chimureki today, they say he is the apostle to the Walasi. I'd like to be there and like to hear the Lord saying to him, well done, now good and faithful servant. And so many others of them, Al-Chandra, that I could tell you their names. one by one tell you how they've served the Lord in this way and that way.
And one might feel, well, he's a very simple chap and so on, and yet the result has been souls saved. They've testified for Christ, and the Holy Spirit of God has taken the word, and there has been the miracle of salvation in their lives. And now they've gone on to be with the Lord, and the Lord will certainly rejoice in what they have done. But all the sorrow. if the character of our work is not gold, silver, and precious stones, but if it's wood, hay, and stubble, and if we've let the years pass and our lives go on, and we've not given to the Lord our all, and committed ourselves to Him in faithfulness in the performance of the task He's given us to do, in reaching out for lost souls and giving them the message of salvation.
and living before them in a way that will commend the gospel to them. It would be that our lives are passed away. The duration of our lives is given to wood, hay, and stubble. And when the Lord looks on the wood, hay, and stubble, His eyes of fire looking upon these things, there will be destruction of these things because they cannot withstand the scrutiny of the Lord Jesus. And then will come sorrow. I'm one who believes that the wiping away of the tears comes later. But at the judgment seat of Christ, certainly when we see His lovely face, He who died for us and shed His own precious blood on Calvary's cross for us came and walked up the paths in Palestine giving the way of salvation, giving the blessed truth of the Word of God, giving healing to the sick and to the blind sight and to the deaf hearing and raising the dead.
And we see him knowing that our salvation is because it is atoning work on Calvary's Cross and we have nothing to give to him. Oh, what sorrow it will be. if that time comes and we have nothing to offer to the Lord at that time. Look again at Romans chapter fourteen. Romans fourteen verse ten. Once again at the end of the verse we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, the Bima.
As it is written as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. First Peter, chapter five, we have in the churches, the local churches of the world, we have those who are pastors, who are spiritual pastors, shepherds of the flock, who have a task to perform. First Peter chapter five, shall we say verse two, feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight of it, not by constraint but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.
neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. When the Lord in these days give us a sense of devotion to himself, that will cause us to put our lives in entirety into his control, asking him, in the words of Paul, Saul in the ninth chapter of the book of the Acts, when he saw the Lord there on the road to Damascus, as he went out breathing threatenings and slaughter against the children of God, the sons, the followers of the way, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he was slitten to the ground and he heard the voice of the Lord. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? What wilt thou have me to do? And in that wonderful verse I often quote, the Lord giving definite instructions to it is what he should do. He said, I send thee to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light. from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them who are sanctified by faith that is in me.
Paul said, Whereupon, O King, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. But went and preached. Then I think of another word, and this is in the second chapter of the book of the Acts. You remember, I'm sorry, the book of John. The second chapter of the book of John. John chapter two. Let's just read it together. You remember the passage very well? John chapter two. When they lacked wine, the mother of Jesus said unto him they had no wine. And then the Lord rebuked her in one sense.
Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hours not yet come. Five, his mother saith unto the servants, Whosoever he saith unto you, do it. That's what I wanted to pass on. Whosoever he saith unto you, do it. Saul said, Lord, what wilt I have me to do? And then Mary said to those servants, Whosoever he saith unto you, do it. Could it be that tonight, after we've had this happy time together in the course of the week, we've had the joy of thinking of distant lands, we've had the joy of thinking of the opportunity over yonder in Africa, giving forth the word of life that there would be some young person who might be exercised about going over there, or perhaps some older person with some special skill that he would like to devote to collaborating in the work of the Lord in a distant field.
Or would it be perhaps that Someone would like to take a certain missionary. You've heard the names of various missionaries and take that missionary to your heart and really fellowship with that missionary in a very intimate way. Could it be that somehow in the course of this week the Lord is speaking to us concerning our own participation, our involvement in the work of the Lord? And this can concern each one of us. Actually, the matter that's heaviest on my heart is this, the necessity for our involvement, each one of us as believers, in the work of the Lord, in the local assembly of believers, the local church wherever we are, involvement there, and involvement in that which is so dear to the heart of the Lord, that of getting the only saving gospel out to the distant parts of the world.
This pilot you've been seeing in the film tonight is a very dear friend of mine, Dave Bookman. We know him very well. We've spoken to him. We've had been some help to him too in his own spiritual life. We praise God for that. Dr. Westcott, I've known him since nineteen twenty-nine when he went out. I knew his wife before she became ill. I've seen the work that the Lord has done. Ruth, Dix who's there, Ruth King Dix, the one I called the gynecologist, obstetrician, the one who's so used of God there in the hospital at Yankundi.
These are people who are dedicated to the Lord, their lives are given to the Lord. Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. Could we in the course... At the end of this week, could we come to that point in our own individual lives of realizing that each one of us has a definite task to perform? In the building up of the church on a local level and on a universal level, we have a task to perform. And the Lord can show us what He wants us to do. We might have that spirit of being available and being involved for the Lord.
I've talked to a good many young people in these recent months, as we've had many conferences and many of them with young people largely present. And my heart is cheered to know that there is an exercise in the hearts of young people to know what the Lord wants them to do and to do it. And we're encouraged by some who seem to be exercised about going out to mission fields and serving the Lord. And it would be for the glory of the Lord that we should be exercised, each one of us, as to what we can do. Some can give their strength, their training, their youth, and go out and serve the Lord on some mission field.
Others are past that age of ability to go out and learn the difficult languages of the world. But, as was pointed out, we can all pray. And there are many who are able to give very considerable participation and assistance in the work of the Lord, few resources one might have. I'm thinking of skills. We have been looking for a man to go out to Zaire and to wire one section of the work there in Yonkundi, for example. I don't know who has...
the task to perform, but I feel somewhere the Lord has an electrician he's going to send out, hopefully at his own expense, to go out there to the mission field and rewire the mission station at Nyankundi. The hospital side, Richard Dix has been working on that, and it looks to me like his is pretty well along, but on the mission side of Nyankundi, there is still a lot to be done in rewiring, because we've gone to an electricity now that comes from the hydroelectric plant at the gold mines, the Kilomoto gold mines there.
We've had to build a power line of eighteen miles in order to bring that right to Niyankundi, but now they have electricity twenty-four hours a day. But mind you, those electric wires that we put in, were for a very much lighter current. In fact, it was for a hundred and ten volts, we wired the station. In our inexperienced way, yes, it worked all right, but we know that it has to be rewired to be a good professional job. It needs a man to go out and wire the whole station at the uncool. We know, too, that there are needs in the medical work.
There are needs of specialists. Those who are, for example, lab technicians and nurses as well are needed in the work out there. There are many needs in the work that I know so intimately out there in Africa. And there are works that need to be taken care of right here in this country. I don't personally know our brother Spender, but I hear of this... tremendous work that's being done up in New England these days are by the Lord and I hear that there is a need for facilities in order to provide places for meeting together, for these who are trusting the Lord and are being baptized in the foundation, if you like to say, the foundation of new churches that are being formed there, new assemblies that are being planted in that area.
It could be that we could meet the obligations and the needs of our brother there in the work in which he's engaged. There are so many things, and I just like to take, I have another five minutes, and I just like to take time to answer any question you might have along this line or along any other line in the brief five minutes that we have. Ask a question about the mission field or anything that's on your heart, and we'll... Close with a word of prayer and leave the meeting. Do you have any question that's in your mind?
You've been thinking about the mission field throughout this week and particularly the work out there in Africa. Do you have a question you'd like to pose? I'd be glad in these few minutes to answer this so. Yes. None, whatsoever. The local government in Zaire at the present time is very favorable to the work in which we're engaged, and at present time there is no difficulty. The present government in Zaire is anti-communist. The president, Mobutu Sese Seco, the president is in high favor with America and receives subsidies that are not all used for the country, alas, but help him in his own personal needs or beyond that.
At any rate, the government is happy with the work there and is not, in any sense, interfering with it. It's a field in which the doors are wide open for the gospel. Please. Well, of course, any place you teach the gospel, and Satan is active, there will be opposition. And certainly the opposition comes from those who would reduce the gospel to something that is more mechanical, that is more...
material that is more philanthropic than requiring the surrender of individual lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. But I can't point on anything that I think of at the present time that we're having direct opposition from the work from any immediate source. I don't know if I could really call that as an opposition to the preaching of the gospel, but it is certainly something which eventually would limit the freedom of the people of God and would interfere with the simple gathering of believers as local churches overseen by their local elders.
They would like to impose on all of the work in Zaire, an episcopal arrangement whereby each group would have its own bishop, and these bishops would be under an archbishop over the whole work in Zaire. And it would become then more or less like a formal state church type of thing under liturgy and routine and uniformity. And things prescribed for this day, preach that. And for that day, preach that. And those, they're also asking, they would ask also, in the same vein, they would ask the government to give salaries to the pastors throughout the country.
And that would lead to a state church, which would be very disastrous to the... simplicity of the gospel and the freedom. So I answer the brother back there too in adding that that this is a very true danger of the work now. Yes? Well, normally the simple, it would be a tourist visa one would get and that's three months duration. Beyond that, it would have to be applied for in the country, and it could be obtained for a longer period. But normally a person coming out for a task to perform, shall we say, if he could get it done within three months, just a regular tourist visa would suffice.
But if he wanted to stay over a longer period, an application would have to be made, and it would be granted, I feel sure. Does that answer your question? No, there are permanent residents. There are merchants. Many Greek merchants were there. In our area the merchants on the wholesale scale are Greeks, largely, and in some parts there are Portuguese down in the lower Congo, and there are also some Pakistanis who are there who live, and there are Belgians, of course, in the technical type of work, and in the mines, the copper mines, and the Katanga, the Shaba area, there are resident Belgians.
There are not very many who are really wanting to stay permanently, but they have residence visas, but they're planning to make... makes some money and get out later. They're really not planning to stay for the rest of their lives. Please. I wouldn't say many. There are some of them who are definitely Christians, but I must say that as far as, and this is a criticism, I can say it frankly because it's widely known. The present structure of the government is a corrupt structure, and the Christians are, individual Christians, are very unhappy in it, because the government is largely operated by a system of bribes.
The justice, so-called, of the country, that is, the legal side of the country is something that can be bought. Anyone that is able to pay the price can win his case. and the innocent person who can't afford to pay, he loses his case. This is up and down through the whole country. But there are individual Christians, some who are magistrates in the law departments, in the tribunals and so on. There are individuals who are out and out for the Lord. Their hearts are grieved, but individually they are honest. For the most part, those who are in the government at the present time are not Christians.
All right, we'll just have a word of prayer if we may. Our Heavenly Father, we thank thee for thy word, which comes to our hearts to remind us that we have our responsibilities before thee, each one. We go to different parts of the world, go to present the gospel to those who know not Christ in a distant land, and others have their responsibilities before thee in these countries, in the West. And we pray, Lord, that thou will give each one of us that sense of responsibility before thee, that we may ask, as Saul did years ago, Lord, what will thou have me to do?
And then hearing the word of the mother of our Lord, we'll say, we'll accept the challenge and do it, the thing that thou dost desires to do. Exercise our hearts for the glory of thy name and for the growth of the local assemblies of believers, local churches throughout the countries of America and Canada, and cause that our being together, thinking about missions this week, may have a spiritual value in our souls that we personally would know a greater devotion to thyself and involvement in the plan thou hast for each one of us. Bless us then as we separate in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.