“ … The Lord has called Me from the womb; From the matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name… And He said to me: You are My servant… In whom I will be glorified. Then I said: I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain… Zion said: The Lord has forsaken me, And my Lord has forgotten me, Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you... Lift up your eyes, look around and see; All these gather together and come to you. As I live, says the Lord: You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all as an ornament, And bind them on you as a bride does, For your waste and desolate places, And the land of your destruction, Will even now be too small for the inhabitants; And those who swallowed you up will be far away. The children you will have, After you have lost the others, Will say again in your ears: The place is too small for me; Give me a place where I may dwell. Then you will say in your heart: Who has begotten these for me, Since I have lost my children and am desolate, A captive, and wandering to and fro? And who has brought these up? There I was, left alone; But these, where were they? Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations, And set up My standard for the peoples; They shall bring your sons in their arms, And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders… Then you will know that I am the Lord, For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, Or the captives of the righteous be delivered? But thus says the Lord: Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, And the prey of the terrible be delivered; For I will contend with him who contends with you, And I will save your children “ (Isaiah 49 : 1 – 25).
How many times do we all repeat these sentences?
“ I have labored in vain, spent my strength for nothing and in vain “.
“ The Lord has forsaken and forgotten us “.
“ I have lost my children and am desolate, a captive and wandering to and fro… left alone “.
We repeat these sentences on a personal level, and on the ministry and the winning of souls’ level..
And today I want to look with you on these words concerning the ministry.. the winning of souls.. the predictable fruit… etc.
One equation controls us all:
A successful church that walks in the plan of God, with whom the Lord is pleased = huge numbers of people in church.
Other than this means that the church is not successful, and does not walk in the plan of God, and the Lord is not pleased with her.
This equation falls on us as individuals, so we consider ourselves as not walking in God’s plan, so we repeat the sentences we mentioned earlier: I have labored in vain.. spent my strength.. the Lord has forgotten me !!!
But today the Lord is going to change this equation, and He will change our concepts, through the message from which He is going to teach us a new lesson, and surely encourage us through it.
We work for the kingdom, and our great commission is to win souls, and much more important is to see numbers coming to the Lord, filling our churches, not to be misunderstood..
But beloveds, today I want to tell you, that we might not see with our natural eyes a big hidden church, that is in the preparation process, in the development process, in the shaping process.. but everyone of us will see it when he stands before the throne of Christ, and he will witness his assistance into it for sure.
The book of Revelation says:
“And they sang a new song, saying: You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation “ (Revelation 5 : 9).
Notice carefully.. they are not of those you see in your church, but of every tribe and tongue and people and nation !!!
And trust with no doubts at all, that the Lord will say to you:
This.. and that.. and those.. and these.. and.. and.. and… they all came here, and were saved because of you !!!
And you, like the writer of the passage we wrote here, will ask:
Who has begotten these for me since I have lost my children and am desolate, a captive and wandering to and fro? And who has brought these up? There I was left alone but these where were they?
Where were they?
Read with me first these passages from God’s word:
“ For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister, And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises “.
(Hebrews 6 : 10 – 12).
“ Cast your bread upon the waters, For you will find it after many days “.
(Ecclesiastes 11 : 1).
“ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase “.
(1 Corinthians 3 : 6 ).
“ And He said: The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head “.
(Mark 4 : 26 – 28).
Where were they?
They are from the bread you threw on the water’s surface, from the plant you planted, from the seeds you threw on ground, with more clear practical sentences..
They are.. from your prayers, intercessions, honest tears, from simple words you said to people, and maybe you didn’t give it importance, maybe you forgot about it and forgot the people, they are from the ministry or service you do that you underestimate or consider simple, from booklets you distributed, from your invitations to people to come to a conference or a preaching, and you never saw them again, maybe you forgot about them, from people you invited to visit the church website, or the church TV program, from colleagues with you at work who see your behavior, life and faithfulness, without you noticing it.. from a prayer you prayed while passing through a specific place, from.. from.. from…
Yes.. you might consider some of these things as very simple and not enough to bear fruit..
But they are not like that to the Lord.. for the 2 fishes and 5 loaves of bread.. will feed thousands when you trust the Lord and put them in His hands.. they will bring thousands to salvation from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
Do you know why?
For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name.. as the Hebrews epistle says..
The reason of your weary and depression today is that you didn’t yet see those people coming to your church..
But beloveds.. we don’t want them to come to our church.. but to be saved from eternal flame, we want to see them in heaven standing next to the Lord.. from every tribe and tongue and people and nation and denomination.. so don’t get lost and don’t loose faith !!!
And like the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes says:
“ In the morning sow your seed, And in the evening do not withhold your hand; For you do not know which will prosper, Either this or that, Or whether both alike will be good “(Ecclesiastes 11 : 6).
You might not know it on earth.. but you will surely see the results of this planting in heaven..
The Lord said:
“ Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal “(Matthew 6 : 19 – 20).
Do not evaluate yourself according to what you see now of treasures on earth, of souls that you count before the Lord, being proud that you gain them to Christ, for the small number will put you down, and the big number could be destroyed by the moth and rust of arrogance and pride, and Satan can then steal your labor and prize, so work in secret with one motive, and that is to obey the Lord and serve Him faithfully and with loyalty, not looking at the fruits, so you can have a treasure for yourself in heaven.. from every tribe and tongue and people and nation..
An important lesson.. better to say a warning from God’s word, what the writer of Hebrews said:
“ And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises “.
For Satan is hypocrite, we shouldn’t ignore his thoughts, for when we put before ourselves the equation of seen numbers, and we see them small, we will be depressed and feeling failure, and then we become introverted and we stop the work saying like we mentioned earlier:
I have labored in vain, spent my strength for nothing and in vain..
This is why the word of God came to encourage us to persevere and have diligence and not to become sluggish until the end, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the heavenly promises..
At the end…
Trust that your hands labor will not go in vain with the Lord..
Trust that you are not rejected desolated without children and captive, just because you are not seeing fruits with your eyes now like you desire..
Trust that the Lord will bring your children that you have labored without birthing them yet, and you will clothe yourself with them as an ornament..
Trust that the land of your destruction and desolation will be too small for the inhabitants..
Trust that your children will say in your ears: the place is too small for us, give us place where we may dwell..
Trust that the Lord will take your preys form Satan’s hand and put them in your lab..
Trust that those who wait on the Lord and count on His name shall not be put to shame and no timidity will be lifted on their faces..
Trust in a hidden church that you don’t see today which is from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.. you will see it in heaven, and your tears will flow out of joy because of that..
Be encouraged.. be diligent don’t stop your hands from doing God’s work, because by faith and patience you will inherit the promises..
Jabez’ mother suffered a lot in his birth, this why she called him Jabez, but he was the most noble and honorable of all his brothers, so he pleaded to God and said to Him:
“ … Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain, So God granted him what he requested “ (1 Chronicles 4 : 10).
Let our prayer today be like Jabez’ prayer.. trusting that the Lord will surely answer it.
