THE PRACTICE HANDBOOK FOR THE DISTRICT SERVING ONES

SERIES ONE
BASIC PRINCIPLES FOR THE DISTRICT SERVING ONES

Message Five
Shepherding People according to the Lord’s Heart

Luke 15:4     Which man of you, who has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?

John 21:16    He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love Me? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I love You. He said to him, Shepherd My sheep.

 

LOVE COVERING ALL TRANSGRESSIONS

Proverbs 10:12 says, “Hatred stirs up strife, / But love covers all transgressions.” If we hate each other, we will have endless strife, but love covers not only one sin or some sins but all sins. James ends his writing by saying, “My brothers, if any one among you is led astray from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner back from the error of his way will save that one’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (5:19-20). Should we hate one who is not up to the standard, who is led astray from the truth, or should we love him? We may not love those who are not able to live in corporate living. We may love only the particular group of those who live properly in our homes. This is altogether not according to the Spirit of the Lord as revealed in the Bible. If a brother is good, he does not need our love very much, because he has already been sufficiently loved. Nearly everyone loves a good person, but what about one who is led astray from the truth? If a brother is led astray from the truth to attend the denominations or go to the movies, our small group may feel that we do not need him, and we do not accept him because he is not qualified. This is not love; this is hate. Love covers many sins. Even if we know that he goes to the movies, we should not tell others. This is to cover him. We do not like to uncover him or expose him. To uncover is not love. Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins. We would rather be like the sons of Noah who covered their father’s nakedness, which was due to his drunkenness. We do not like to uncover others. Covering brings in blessing, but uncovering brings in a curse. This is not a small matter. Those who uncover suffer the curse, but those who cover others’ sins, defects, and shortcomings enjoy, gain, and receive blessing.

GOD LOVING THE WORLD FOR SINNERS TO HAVE ETERNAL LIFE,
THAT IS, TO BECOME THE NEW JERUSALEM

By reading all the above verses, we can see the heart of our God and of our Savior Jesus Christ. John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.” The heart of our God is to love not only righteous men but sinners, even the world, which is worse than mere sinners. World denotes the sinful, fallen people. The entire human race became the world, just as the entire divine race, the new race, will become the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the totality, the consummation, of the eternal life, while the world is the totality, the consummation, of the fallen race. It is a hardship for translators to translate verse 16. The Chinese Union Version renders it in a way that can be interpreted, “God loved the people on this earth.” This is inadequate. The world denoting the fallen race is seen in the word flesh in Genesis 6:3, which says, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, for he indeed is flesh.” Because all the people on this earth became flesh, God decided to temporarily forsake the world, which He loved, for a purpose. God loved the fallen human race, who became so rotten as to be one with Satan. The world indicates man becoming one with Satan, becoming Satan’s cosmos, the satanic system that systematizes all people. In this way, world is worse than sinners because it denotes that man is incorporated with Satan. World, denoting the human race in John 3:16, is a very bad term. God so loved the world, sinful people in their worst denotation, that He gave His only begotten Son, not so that they would go to heaven but that everyone who believes into Him would not perish but have eternal life.

THE LORD NOT COMING TO CALL THE RIGHTEOUS BUT SINNERS

First Timothy 1:15 says, “Faithful is the word and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am foremost.” Christ Jesus came into the world, which, as we have seen, is not a positive term. He came into the world, into the fallen human race, to save sinners. Paul, as Saul of Tarsus, was the top sinner. If Christ came only to save gentlemen, to save righteous men, Paul would have been finished. He could not have participated in God’s salvation. In coming to save sinners, Christ took the sinners as His object. His heart is to save us, the sinners in the world.

First John 4:10 says, “Herein is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins.” We may never have been impressed with the intrinsic significance of verses like this. God is love; it is not that we loved God but that He loved us. We never cared for God, and we forsook Him. Us in this verse refers to the world. God not only loved the world, but He also loved us. Moreover, His love is shown in that He sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins.

Matthew 9:10-13 says, “As He was reclining at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and reclined together with Jesus and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, Why does your Teacher eat with the tax collectors and sinners? Now when He heard this, He said, Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill. But go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” The house mentioned here is not a corporate-living house; it is a house of sinners and tax collectors. Jesus, though He was the God-man, feasted there with them, reclining at the table. He enjoyed that time, and all the tax collectors and sinners, the ancient “gangsters,” joined together with Him. That offended the Pharisees. The Pharisees here may be compared to the ones who regulate the corporate-living homes. The “corporate-living Pharisees” came and asked why Jesus was eating with the “gangsters” and “bank robbers.” The Lord answered that those who are strong have no need of a physician. If one is healthy enough to live properly in corporate living, he does not need a vital group as a “health clinic.” A strong, healthy man does not need to go to a clinic. Jesus, the Son of God, did not come for the strong men; they do not need Him. He came for the ill ones. The vital groups are set up not for those who are healthy and strong and able to live in corporate living but for those who return to the brothers’ homes after midnight. God desires mercy, not sacrifice. If we sacrifice and offer much to Him without mercy, He does not like it. First Corinthians 13:3 says, “If I dole out all my possessions to feed others, and if I deliver up my body that I may boast, but do not have love, I profit nothing.” To give everything for others without love means nothing. Mercy is the usher of love. To love those who are poor requires that we have mercy on them. The Lord did not come to call the righteous but the sinners. This is His heart.

HAVING A SPIRIT TO GO TO TAX COLLECTORS AND SINNERS

Luke 7:34-50 also speaks of the Lord Jesus being with sinners and tax collectors. Verse 34 says, “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” If we see one who is a drunkard drinking beer, we certainly would stay away from him. We would rather go to one who is a saint living properly in corporate living. This kind of spirit now is spreading everywhere around the globe in the Lord’s recovery. We love those in the proper corporate living, but we do not love the ones who go to the movies or drink beer. Instead, we may gossip about them. This is the spirit that fills all the churches. Some may charge me, saying, “Did you not teach us concerning beer drinking?” Yes, I have taught about this, but there is another side. Believe me, in the New Jerusalem no one will drink beer again. At that time the beer drinkers will all be in the lake of fire. But today Christ is the heavenly ladder. He is not a flat stairway but a standing stairway. Previously, we were in “hell.” When I was under twenty, I played mah-jongg behind my mother’s back; all the Chinese like to play mah-jongg, but one day a heavenly ladder appeared to me, and I climbed it. I left the mah-jongg table and climbed to the New Jerusalem.

I can never forget a certain pastor. While I was playing mah-jongg, he came to me every week. My older sister was studying in the highest women’s seminary in China. She loved the Lord at that time, and she knew that I was not gained by the Lord, so she committed me to this pastor. After that commitment he came to me every week for three or four months, but he did not speak much. Finally, at the end of December he said, “Mr. Lee, you are busy at the end of the year because in your business you have many things to do. Therefore, I will not come to you next week. I will wait until the New Year is over.” He did not come, but remarkably, the heavenly ladder came. As all the Chinese know, the second day of the Chinese New Year is a day of rottenness, gambling, and all manner of entertainment. On that day I rose and put on my best, new clothes. After breakfast, as I stood there in my new clothes, my mother asked me, “What shall you do today?” As I considered her question, I could not speak. Right away without thinking I said, “I shall go to Pastor Yu’s church.” My mother was very happy. Then I went to that denominational church. That was my first time to climb the heavenly ladder. Christ went to a house full of sinners and tax collectors. The vital groups, the co-workers, and the elders should pick up this spirit, the spirit of God loving the world, the spirit of Christ coming to the worst homes in order to gain people and put them upon Him as the heavenly ladder so that they may ascend on Him.

HAVING THE LOVING AND FORGIVING HEART OF OUR FATHER GOD
AND THE SHEPHERDING AND SEEKING SPIRIT
 OF OUR SAVIOR CHRIST

I love Luke 15. Verse 1 says, “Now all the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Him to hear Him.” The gentlemen and righteous men were not joined to Him, but the tax collectors and sinners were. Therefore, the Pharisees murmured and complained again. Then the Lord spoke three parables. The first is concerning a shepherd seeking the one, unique, lost sheep. Of one hundred, this one was a lost one, so the shepherd came purposely for him. Why did the Lord go to a house full of sinners and tax collectors? It was because among them there was one lost sheep of His, whom He had come to seek. The second parable is concerning a woman who lit a lamp and swept the house to seek her lost coin. The third parable is about the prodigal son. The shepherd is the Son, the woman is the Spirit, and in the parable of the prodigal son there is the Father. As the prodigal son was returning, he was preparing and considering what to speak to his father. He prepared himself to say, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants” (vv. 18-19). While he was walking and thinking like this, the father saw him. Verse 20 says, “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and he ran and fell on his neck and kissed him affectionately.” That the father saw the son a long way off was not an accident. From the time the son left home, the father must have gone out to look and wait for his coming back every day. We do not know how many days he watched and waited. When the father saw him, he ran to him. This is the Father’s heart. The father interrupted the son while he was speaking his prepared word. The son wanted to speak the word he had prepared, but the father told his servants to bring the robe, the ring, and the sandals and to prepare the fattened calf. A teacher among the Brethren told me that in the whole Bible we can see God run only one time, in Luke 15, where the father saw the returning prodigal son. He ran; he could not wait. This is the Father’s heart.

NOT CLASSIFYING PEOPLE

To speak truthfully, we have lost this spirit among the co-workers, elders, and vital groups. We do not have such a loving spirit that loves the world, the worst people. We classify people, choosing who are the good ones. Throughout my years I have seen many good ones. Eventually, very few of the good ones remain in the Lord’s recovery. Rather, so many bad ones remain. In the beginning I also was one who classified them as bad, but today many bad ones are still here. If it were according to our concept, where would God’s choosing be? Our choosing depends upon God, who chose His people before the foundation of the world. The Bible says that God hated Esau and loved Jacob. If we were there, none of us would have selected Jacob. This man was too bad. We would have selected Esau, the gentleman. From his mother’s womb, Jacob was fighting, and when he was born, he grabbed his brother’s heel. Eventually, he did everything that caused Esau to want to kill him. His mother Rebekah knew this, so she sent him away to his uncle’s house, but when he went there, he did the same thing; he cheated his uncle by getting four wives from him. This is to live like a gangster. None of us would have chosen Jacob. It is not up to our choosing, our selection. It is based upon God’s eternal selection.

Do not classify people. Who can tell what they will be? When I was playing mah-jongg at the age of eighteen or nineteen, who would have thought that this mah-jongg player would sit in America many years later to talk to people about the Lord? Who brought me here? It was Christ as the heavenly ladder. He brought me up to God in the heavens, and He brought me down to the earth with Himself. The heavenly ladder has many steps, and God brought me up not in one year but over many years. When I arrived at the top, I met God, and He equipped me and sent me back down. I came down, first to Taiwan, then to the South Asian islands, and then to this country. Now I am here. The pastor in my hometown did not say of me, “I know this man. He is a gambler, a mah-jongg player. I do not like him, and I do not want to have such a member in my church.” Rather, he visited me, and one day very mysteriously the seeking Spirit was seeking in me, like the woman in Luke 15.

CHRIST COMING TO SAVE SINNERS,
ESPECIALLY THE TOP SINNERS

Why would I spend so much time on this subject? I want to shepherd and disciple you from the Bible so that you can see this matter and have a change. I am discipling you to change your concept. The God-man concept is that Christ came to save sinners, especially the top sinners. He saves the “gangsters,” even the leader of the “gangsters,” Saul of Tarsus. Paul said, “Faithful is the word and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am foremost” (1 Tim. 1:15). Paul could say this because he was the top sinner opposing Christ. He rebelled against Christ, but while he was rebelling, Christ knocked him down, called him, and saved him. Jesus Himself said, “Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill…I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matt. 9:12-13). That is why He was there among the sinners and tax collectors, eating and feasting with them, reclining at table and enjoying with them.

If we lose this spirit, whether we are elders, co-workers, or serving ones, we are finished. This is the main reason why we are so barren, bearing no fruit for so many years. Recently, a brother went to care for a couple, but he did not have this spirit. He visited them no more than ten times and became disappointed. Since the couple had no heart for this brother, he reported that it was useless to visit them further. When Pastor Yu visited me, I did not care for him, but he continued to come for three or four months, week after week. We need to have this spirit. We all have to change our concept. Therefore, we need discipling. We have too much of the natural thought. We need to be discipled to have the divine concept, the concept of the Father’s heart and the heart of the Lord Jesus, who came to save sinners.

NOT LABELING PEOPLE

Do not say that your vital group is only for those in corporate living, and do not label people. We like to rank people, saying that the co-workers are the first rank, while others are the subsequent ranks. This is absolutely wrong. There is no rank. We all are the people in the world and in the flesh. Even today I am very wary that I may do something by my flesh. If I am not wary, I will still live by my old life. When I talk to my wife, I have to be careful; otherwise, I will talk to her in the natural life. Then I will have to confess, “Lord, even in the matter of the way I talked to my wife, I was not conformed to Your death. I did not do it in Your resurrection.” Dear saints, are these things merely teachings to us? As the final item of the way to overcome the degradation of the church, 2 Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.” This refers to the Lord Jesus as the life-giving Spirit in our spirit to be the abiding grace. He is abiding, remaining, in our spirit all the time as grace for our enjoyment. However, I have checked with myself, saying, “Do you live such a life? Every day, every moment, do you enjoy the Lord Jesus as the Spirit in your spirit to be the abiding grace?” I have to admit that I do not. The Lord knows that every morning I pray, “Lord, thank You for another day. I am still here on this earth. I want to live You, and I want to live with You, walk with You, work with You, and move with You.” I pray this every morning, but throughout the day, do I live with the Lord? Do I talk to people with the Lord; do I work with the Lord; do I move with the Lord? In a meeting I may speak with the Lord, but after I return home, I may be another person. I may be rebuked when I consider whether I am living and moving with the Lord. This illustrates that we are all far off. Therefore, we should not label people. We should not say that we are the class of people who live with the Lord, walk with the Lord, and work with the Lord. There is not such a class. Some may claim that they are the class of saints who are able to live in corporate living, but in actuality and practicality, they are not. Why then do we label people? This kind of labeling offends people, and it indicates that we do not have a spirit for the weaker ones, for the ones who are inferior to us. It also indicates that we do not want them. People have often told me that I am an apostle, but I have never claimed that I am an apostle. I do not even consider myself qualified to be a pastor. I am just the same as the other saints. Once we condemn anyone, we lose the position to take care of that one. Condemnation does not stir up our care for others. Who among the human race is lovable? In the eyes of God, everyone is not lovable in themselves, yet God still loves them; that is, He loves the world. I do not prefer to have this kind of fellowship with you, but I must speak in this way for your sake in order to shepherd you.

ALL DEPENDING UPON LOVE

We need to have this kind of love and go to tell all the dormant ones who think that the church condemns them that the church does not condemn anyone. Rather, the church wants to see all the dormant ones come back. If they all would come back, I would weep with tears of thanksgiving to the Lord. The Lord can testify for me that I do not condemn anyone. We have no qualification to condemn anyone. Without the Lord’s mercy, we would be the same as the dormant ones. Therefore, we must love them. It all depends upon love, as the wise king Solomon said, “Love covers all transgressions” (Prov. 10:12). We love people. We love the opposers, and we love the top rebels. I really mean it. We love them and do not hate them. Who am I? I am not qualified to condemn or to hate. Am I perfect? Even the prophet Isaiah, when he saw the Lord, said, “Woe is me, for I am finished! / For I am a man of unclean lips, / And in the midst of a people of unclean lips I dwell” (Isa. 6:5). Who is clean today? If we criticize people and say something bad about them, we are not clean. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “A Word of Love to the Co-workers, Elders, Lovers, and Seekers of the Lord,” ch. 2)

LOVE BEING THE GREATEST

Love is not jealous, is not provoked, does not take account of evil, covers all things, endures all things, never falls away, and is the greatest (1 Cor. 13:4-8, 13). Jealousy is in our nature. When a new child is born in a family, the other child may become jealous. Jealousy is also present in the church life. One sister may be jealous of another sister because she receives many Amens from the saints when she prays or prophesies. Some brothers may be jealous when they see that another brother has been appointed into the eldership. After being in the church life for over sixty years, I can testify that one of the hardest things is to appoint the elders. We realize that if we appoint a certain brother, another brother whom we do not feel to appoint may be stumbled because of jealousy. If a certain sister is asked to take the lead in a sisters’ house, the others may become jealous, but love is not jealous.

The elders need to realize that in their shepherding, they have to cover others’ sins, to not take account of others’ evils. Love covers all things, not only the good things but also the bad things. Whoever uncovers the defects, shortcomings, and sins of the members of the church is disqualified from the eldership. Our uncovering of the members under our eldership, our shepherding, annuls our qualification. Love also endures all things and never falls away. First Corinthians 13 concludes by saying, “Now there abide faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love” (v. 13).

THE BODY BUILDING ITSELF UP IN LOVE

The Body of Christ builds itself up in love (Eph. 4:16). The phrase in love is used repeatedly in the book of Ephesians (1:4; 3:17; 4:2, 15-16; 5:2). God predestinated us unto sonship before the foundation of the world in love, and the Body of Christ builds itself up in love. The growth in life is in love. In the last few years we have appreciated the Lord’s showing us the high peak of the divine revelation. My concern is that although we may talk about the truths of the high peak, love is absent among us. If this is the case, we are puffed up, not built up. The Body of Christ builds itself up in love. 

LOVE BEING THE MOST EXCELLENT WAY

Love prevails. We should love everybody, even our enemies. If the co-workers and elders do not love the bad ones, eventually, they will have nothing to do. We must be perfect as our Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48) by loving the evil ones and the good ones without any discrimination. We must be perfect as our Father because we are His sons, His species. This is most crucial. How can we be a co-worker and an elder? It is by love in every way. We must love any kind of person. The Lord Jesus said that He came to be a Physician, not for the healthy ones but for the sick ones. The Lord said, “Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill” (9:12). 

The church is not a police station to arrest people or a law court to judge people, but a home to raise up the believers. Parents know that the worse their children are, the more they need their raising up. If our children were angels, they would not need our parenting to raise them up. The church is a loving home to raise up the children. The church is also a hospital to heal and to recover the sick ones. Finally, the church is a school to teach and edify the unlearned ones who do not have much understanding. Because the church is a home, a hospital, and a school, the co-workers and elders should be one with the Lord to raise up, to heal, to recover, and to teach others in love.

Some of the churches, however, are police stations to arrest the sinful ones and law courts to judge them. Paul’s attitude was different. He said, “Who is weak, and I am not weak?” (2 Cor. 11:29a). When the scribes and Pharisees brought an adulterous woman to the Lord, He said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7). After all of them left, the Lord asked the sinful woman, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you” (vv. 10-11). Who is without sin? Who is perfect? Paul said, “To the weak I became weak that I might gain the weak” (1 Cor. 9:22). That is love. We should not consider that others are weak but we are not. That is not love. Love covers and builds up, so love is the most excellent way for us to be anything and to do anything for the building up of the Body of Christ. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” msg. 8)