CALLED TOGETHER

 

For some years the message of the Spirit to us here has been that we're not a spiritual supermarket where in­dividuals pick up their personal wants, pay and go on their way. We're a Body, we are members of one another under one shepherd, Jesus, moved by one Spirit. We understand this in our minds .... but we've had trouble translating it into reality.

 

Since 1975 we've been talking about how to function.... really function .... as one Body. And we've been blessed with much fruit, increased numbers, new congregations springing up, old congregations revitalized. But this Body thing still isn't where we know it needs to be.

 

In recent weeks there has been some hopeful progress. And this progress, like all progress in the Kingdom of God, has begun in the realm of vision. God turns on a light and shows us his hand at work ... opens our eyes to see that the battle is not ours, but his ... that this unity in the Body which must be actual before the power of God can flow through our ministry, is the result of his primary action. All we do is trust him and fit in.

 

David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. And every one who was in distress, and every one who was in debt, and every one who was discontented, gathered to him; and he became captain over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.

I Samuel 22:1-2

 

These four hundred men and their families had the future on their side. They didn't look like much hiding in that cave, being chased all over the wilderness by King Saul and his army. But they were the real Israel ... their captain, David, was the real king and they had a joy,

                                                                                        a confidence,

                                                                                        a freedom,

                                                                                        a sense of purpose nobody in

Saul's huge army had.

 

And every one who was in distress, and every one who was discontented, gathered to him; and he became captain over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.

 

It looked like a ragtag bunch of volunteers, but as time went on every one of those men saw it differently ... they had been drawn to this man David for a purpose far beyond themselves ... they had been called.

 

And David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab; and he said to the king of Moab, "Pray let my father and my mother stay with you, till I know what God will do for me." And he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. Then the prophet Gad said to David, "Do not remain in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah." So David de­parted, and went into the forest of Hereth.

I Samuel 22:3-5

 

David and his motley army were getting guidance from the same glorious God who drew them together. And as they followed that guidance they prospered, grew stronger, moved toward the day when they would rule Israel. Destiny was on their side. The future was on their side.         God himself had called them together for a clear purpose.

 

When we know as clearly as they knew what it means to be called together for a purpose,

 

- when we know what an awesome thing it is to be called into the Body of Christ,

- made members of one another,

- anointed with the Spirit from on high,

- ordained to bear fruit,

- given the future by the very hand of God,

when we know this beyond the shadow of a doubt, then those gates of brass will bend, and those bars of iron will break and we will not only take the Kingdom with violence, we will destroy the works of the devil and set the captives free on a broad scale ... in great numbers.

 

The unity of the Body and the power of God moving through that unity depends on our being clear about four things:

 

1.  We need to be clear that we didn't stumble into this thing ... we didn't volunteer, we were called

     by the Spirit of the Lord.

 

In these days he went out to the mountain to pray; and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called his dis­ciples, and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles; Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

 

And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his dis­ciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came forth from him and healed them all.

 

And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man!

 

Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets."

Luke 6:12-23

 

This is Jesus the son of David with his "army" at his cave of Adullam. There wasn't a volunteer in the bunch. Every man and woman of God among these dis­ciples and apostles was there because the call of God had seized their heart. Now they knew that this is what they had been born for ... this is why they were in this world ... to serve the Kingdom of God.

 

But you are a chosen race, a royal priest­hood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.     1 peter 2:9

 

.....a chosen race,

 

- chosen out of a million back alleys and ash heaps,

 

- chosen from palaces and plantations and slave galleys and prison farms,

 

....chosen by God.

 

.....a royal priesthood,

 

- royal, because we're under the King of Kings, called together by his voice,

 

- priests, bringing a living word to the world – interceding for the world before the Throne of God.

 

.....a holy nation,

 

- holy because we're called apart by God himself for God's own purpose.

 

....God's own people.

 

You can volunteer out of this thing if you want to, but you can't volunteer in! ... You're in because you were called.

 

2.  The power of God will move through the unity of this Body when we know – when we know –that we have been joined to each other by a sovereign act of God.

 

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our

Lord.                              I Corinthians 1:9

 

For just as the body is one and has many mem­bers, and all the members of  the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

I Corinthians 12:12-13

 

This is not a spiritual Farmer Jacks where each of us is on his own. This is a Body, a unit of the world-wide, eternity-wide Body of Christ. You've got to be in a unit somewhere, you don't float. You are in the Body at some specific point. I no more picked you to be my brothers and sisters than I picked my parents. And you no more picked me than you picked your parents.

 

The same sovereign God who gave us our parents, our children, our bodies, our minds, gave us

each other and joined us to each other in this Body.

 

His word calls the dry bones to come together. And as they fit into the bones they are called to fit into by God himself, life comes upon them.

 

3. The power of God will move through the unity of this Body when we know clearly that we've been chosen and ordained to bear fruit.

 

We weren't put together simply for our own comfort, or diversion, but so that the Kingdom of God can impact this city and shake these sick institutions and these despairing streets.

 

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.            John 15:16

 

These words are spoken not to the individuals but to the Body, for his very next words are:

 

"This I command you, to love one another."

John 15:17

 

As we love one another, function in unity, walk in the light, and let our light shine, we will shake Detroit,

 

- we will stir the hearts of the hopeless,

- we will heal the sick,

- we will open the eyes of the blind,

- we will free the captives,

- we will bring the poor of body and soul into

the Kingdom if God in great numbers, ....in great numbers.

 

4.    The power of God will move through the unity of this Body when we know – when we know –  that the future belongs to us....

 

.... it doesn't belong to Washington, or Moscow, or Wall Street, or the Pentagon, or the New York Times .... it belongs to us.

 

And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the sea­coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came forth from him and healed them all. And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:       "Blessed are you poor,  for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

 

He's talking about the future. Jesus is always talking about the future because he is Lord of the future. He stands with us here in the present, but he leads us into the future because it's his.

 

"Oh," you say, "but I was always taught to live for the present ... get all the gusto you can ... you only go around once" (the apostates' creed).

 

You want to be a rock star or a business tycoon? You can live for the present, and if you're good enough at what you do, you can be great in the present by the world's standards. But listen to Jesus:

 

"But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger. Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets."

Luke 6:24-26

 

The present is not our home. Here we have no continuing city. Our city, our home, is up ahead. And the foretaste of it is already here in the Holy Spirit who imparts God's life to us now in the bread and wine which not only links us to Calvary, but also to the marriage Supper of the Lamb.

 

"Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

"Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that they may open to him at once when he comes and knocks.            Luke 12:32-36

 

And when we live this way, (with our loins girded and our lamps burning, and our hands free from all the chains of this earth), the glory of that Kingdom begins to shine in our midst. And the power of that Kingdom be­gins to manifest itself among us. The Lord of that King­dom baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and with fire afresh. We see his winnowing fork in his hand. We see him clearing the threshing floor, and we know he will soon gather the wheat into the granary and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire.

 

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

                                                                                    I Corinthians 12:12-13

 

We are one Body.           We didn't do it ... he did!                All we have to do is fit in.

 

1. We didn't stumble into this thing and we didn't volunteer

... he called us by his Spirit.

 

2. We have been joined to each other by a sovereign act of God.

 

3. We have been chosen and ordained to bear fruit.

 

4. The future belongs to us....

 

.... so let's start fitting in and get on with what we have to do!