Matthew-104

Let us turn to the Lord Jesus’ teaching in Luke 21. We have been constantly studying the Lord Jesus’ teaching in a systematic way, and we have been studying about the coming again of the Lord Jesus. We were looking at a passage in Luke 21:25-27 last time.

Today, we will look at verse 28, and also go on to verses 34-36. We will be looking at what redemption means, and in what sense it is drawing near. We will also touch briefly on verses 34-36:

Redemption is understood as salvation

The word “stand” in Luke 21:36 is to stand acquitted, stand vindicated, stand forgiven, stand righteous.

Disturbances of natural and social phenomena bringing perplexity

We studied already that the Lord Jesus’ words in Luke 21:28, “When these things begin to happen” means the perplexity in men’s hearts, the signs of the coming of the Lord, the intensification of evil, wars among nations, the waves of the sea representing the restlessness of the nations in turmoil, strange things happening in the heavens. He tells us, “When you see these things, you will know that my coming is near. Therefore, lift up your heads while the world fears and trembles because your redemption is drawing near.”

What is this redemption? It is very important for you who have come to God through the Lord Jesus, and you who are about to be baptized, to understand redemption, because the word “redemption” in Scripture is virtually a synonym for salvation. Already so early in the Gospels, from the prophecy of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, are verses that would speak of redeeming and salvation, as in Luke 1:68, 69 and 71. Therefore you could define redemption in terms of salvation from the way the word “redemption” is used in Scripture.

This is what Zechariah says in Luke 1:68-69:

There is the word “saved” again in verse 71:

The word “delivered” also means to be saved in verse 74:

Here we can see how salvation in Scripture is understood in terms of redemption.

Redemption is: God liberates from slavery to sin, buys us with of Jesus’ blood, treats us as sons not slaves

What is redemption? “Redemption” as the word was used in those days, basically meant to free a slave from bondage. The price of redemption was called a ransom. You paid a ransom in order to free the slave from his bondage. Therefore if he belonged to a certain master, the ransom would be paid to that master, and that slave would be freed from that master. He would now belong to the person who bought him. Many people, seeing the plight of slaves, often redeemed the slave in their kindness and set him free, if that person wanted to be free. Sometimes, out of gratitude, that person did not want to be free, but would say, “Let me stay with you. There aren’t that many kind people around, who are willing to set a slave free for no other purpose than out of kindness. I would like to be your slave if you will accept me.” In those cases, the new master who redeemed the slave, would often treat this redeemed slave as a member of his own family. He would no longer treat the slave as a slave but simply adopt that slave as a son or a daughter, whatever the case may be.

That point is very important in Scripture because God sets us free from sin. He buys us with a price namely, the blood of Jesus. He sets us free from sin and instead of treating us as slaves, he treats us as his children. That is why Paul links redemption to the adoption of sons immediately. (Rom. 8:23) That is a beautiful picture!

If we are truly redeemed, there is a deep sense of gratitude that we have received such kindness to be set free from a master who has been extremely harsh upon us. You will soon discover sin is a hard master to serve under if you have not yet discovered it. You are left in loneliness, in bondage, with no direction and purpose in life, with an emptiness within that cannot be filled. All of us have been non-Christians at one time or another. We were all born as non-Christians; none of us were born as Christians. We know what it is to be a non-Christian. We know what kind of a life we lived before and what would have happened to us had we continued in this way.

My redemption: I love my God with all of me, and I will die for him

I think of myself. I often wonder, but for the grace of God, what kind of person would I have been? Perhaps I was quite a good fellow on the surface, but it makes me fearful to think of myself, because I was far too subtle to let my ambition, greed, selfishness be seen. My ambition, selfishness and egoism were so strong yet you would never have known it had you met me in those days when I was not a Christian. I was too good at concealing my real motives, too good at the art of psychology. To be a master of psychology is this: you make the other person do what you want him to do and let him think that it is really he who wants to do it. That is the way to really exploit them, and they are doing this thing thinking that they want to do it when in fact, you got them to do it. The most dangerous people are the people who appear moral and unselfish because they are simply too sophisticated, too cunning, too skillful to let their real motives appear. As I look back, I fear that I was such a person of pride, and who knew too well how to exploit people. And I confess this freely to you. I often just want to withdraw from people. I just want to be alone. I have always been a “lone ranger” in a way. I am not the kind of person who would feel lonely. I don’t particularly need company. Frankly, I find people’s company very boring, if I can be very plain.

God had to change me. He had to change the whole direction of my life to really love to go out to people, love not to exploit them but to serve them. That is what Paul calls “the renewing of your mind. It is a complete change in direction. I find this is what happens. When I look back in my non-Christian days, at my utter egoism, my complete concern with myself, I could never believe there would be a day when I could love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind and with all my strength. If someone told me that, I would think he is crazy. I didn’t care about believing in God or churches. But what did God do with me?

In those days, I was so egoistic that I always loved to be number one. And for some reason, I was always number one. If it was a boys’ gang, I would always be the gang leader. I never, never said, “Everybody vote for me.” I was far too subtle for this kind of thing. If it was the ball team, then I would always end up being the captain, for some reason or other. Perhaps I tended to master every skill by giving attention to it so I became rather good at it. So presumably they thought, “Well, he’s good at it so he should be the captain.” I always thought of myself.

Then of course, I had military ambitions. I would become the great general, the one to lead my armies to battle. My heroes were Napoleon, Julius Caesar, Zhu Ge Liang, people like this. I felt the only problem with Zhu Ge Liang was that he was too self-effacing. He was content to let Liu Bei be the chief and he was number two. I thought, “That’s no good. You’ve got to be Zhu Ge Liang and Liu Bei in one.” The kind of person I was, could never, never acknowledge God. I was always number one. I could never dream of letting God be number one. What did God do to me that today, I am so happy to be a nobody? I don’t want to have any position. Just leave me alone because I just want to continue loving my God and serving him.

That is the consequence of redemption. To be redeemed is to be set free from one’s self, set free from those consuming ambitions. And I would say those ambitions were really consuming me. I would wake up in the morning and be dreaming of my armies, of my air force flying overhead, my tanks rumbling into battle, my group of strate­gists working out the next plan of attack. I would have the best. And in order to do that, I even designed my own weapons, my own trans­port vehicles, my own tanks. I would see how to improve them. Even my soldiers had to be specially equipped with special weapons and special armor because I did not want to lose any of them. Such was my preoccupation.

Strangely enough, many of these weapons that I designed have now come into existence. Many times, when I look through a scientific magazine and I think, “What?! There is a new weapon or a new transport vehicle or a new tank incorporating the very features that I designed in those days!” Nowadays, the tanks are very much like what I designed – low design, high speed and high fire power and so on.

But I took precaution to destroy all my designs when I became a Christian. I turned my back on all these things. As I was sharing in my summer camp Bible study group, when we come to God, all this must go. I was left with nothing, like a little child, and I am happy to be as a little child left with nothing. My “armies” were gone, my ambitions of the world were gone and suddenly, God became my God. He set me free through Christ’s blood.

Even in those days, full of my military ambitions and designs for conquest of the world, I had an emptiness in my heart. I said to myself, “Even if I succeed, what would be accomplished from all this?” Look at Alexander the Great, by the age of 33, he had the world at his feet. His armies had conquered everything. The poor man died from a fever, and was left with nothing. I never forget those lessons. His dream was a united Hellenistic empire, with one language, the Greek language, with one culture, the Greek culture dominating everything! But his dream fell apart. His generals were at each other’s throats and split his kingdom into four within a few years, and they were all fighting each other for years after that. His dreams for a unified empire did not survive his death by a few years. I thought, “What did he accomplish? What were all those struggles for? You cannot make anything in this world last.

Just look at China. Mao Ze Dong and his revolution and the 25,000 mile Long March, and I ask myself, “What did they die for?” What did they accomplish? Today, even Mao is pushed to one side; it’s a whole new ballgame, and who knows where this ballgame will end? We are all studying it with fascination, wondering what is going to happen next. It seems like it is always a totally unpredictable situation. But what happened to his accomplishment and his dreams? What did millions of people die for? Was this what they died for? Let them ask themselves if it was worth dying for.

I think nothing in this world is worth dying for. I will only die for my God, and this is what redemption is, that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and all your strength. This new devotion comes with the redemption, and these words were given to Israel when they were redeemed out of Egypt.

Principle of Consolidation: Consolidate gratitude and devotion to God

Let us now look at these words for a few moments because I want to expound this in connection to the redemption we experienced at the camp. Did you know that we experienced redemption at the camp? Many times, we experienced something, but we did not know what it was we experienced. How would you define it? This setting free from one’s own bondage to the past, one’s own inhibitions, one’s own sins, one’s selfishness. Didn’t we all experience this release? What can you call it when we wept freely together without shame? It’s a release. For once we felt free and the very tears could wash some of this bondage away as we thought, “How long did it take us to finally see the light!” Now once we do this, we are on the way!

But once we are redeemed, once we experience this release, it is very important that we consolidate it. Otherwise, what will happen is that we had a wonderful experience and then it all fades into the distance. It drifts down the river, as it were, like a boat that is without anchor and sinks, and we lose it all. Redemption is something that is too precious to lose because now we have a gratitude, a sense of devotion to him who set us free.

Let us turn for a moment to Mark 12:29-31:

Notice the word “all,” and this is why we have constantly spoken about total commitment. There is simply no commandment greater than these. I would like to look at this passage because we must con­solidate what God has given to us in the experience of redemption.

This morning, I was meditating: What did God show us at the camp? What kind of a vision did He give us? You have said to yourself, “This is what the church should be every day of the week, not only those seven days at camp!” You have caught the vision. This is how it should be. And if you are thinking like this and you have caught the vision, then you are on the way to moving a little bit from this mountain down the valley, but only up the next mountain that is one range higher.

We must have a spiritual understanding and a spiritual strategy if we are to consolidate. Consolidation is a very important principle in warfare. It is also a very important principle in life. Consolidation means that when you go into the attack and throw the enemy back, that you don’t lose the ground that you gained. You immediately dig in; you consolidate your positions so that when he counter-attacks, he can’t throw you back. Then when his waves of counter-attacks are weakening, you throw him back once more. And when you move forward, you dig in, you consolidate your position so that you don’t lose what you gain. It’s the same thing in the spiritual life. We must understand the principle of consolidation otherwise we will lose what we gain.

I. First, God gives us a new heart that is sensitive to him

Mark 12:29-31 is not only a statement about total commitment but as you study it, you will see that it also has to do with a progression. In a sense, heart, soul, mind, strength, as given to us in this order, each involves the whole person. The heart involves the whole person, the soul involves the whole person, the mind involves the whole person, and strength involves the whole person, but they are different aspects of the person.

Notice when God works, the first thing he does is he touches our hearts, doesn’t he? Immediately, he speaks to our hearts. Something happens in our hearts. Now “heart” in Scripture has to do with the whole person but particularly, that part of us that has to do with our emotions. Emotions are a very important part of a person, so I never dare to mess around with other people’s emotions. Whenever I preach, I tell them I am not going to work on anyone’s emotions lest it be we who move their hearts and not God. It must be God who works, and that work will last.

All of us who have the ministry of communication are quite familiar with the techniques of communication, but we must refrain from using techniques which will cause movements of emotion affected by man, not by God, because if we do this, we defeat our own purpose. Our own purpose is that they come to know God and are established in him.

That is why when I evangelize or when I preach, I refuse to use soft music, I refuse to use light effects, I even refuse to use mass choirs. I use nothing. We are going straight to the Word of God. I am so concerned about this that in fact, sometimes, I go to the other extreme, almost speaking without too much expression, because when God works, you don’t need any of that.

John Wesley used to read his message, but before he finished reading, people would be kneeling before God and tears would be running down their faces. And you think, “How did the guy actually touch a person’s heart by reading a piece of paper?” It’s impossible, but that is God at work! It’s very important to grasp this.

We should learn to let God work in a non-Christian’s heart first

So the first thing and notice the sequence is: When God begins his work of redemption, he touches your heart. You read again and again in the Bible that it says, “I will take out the heart of stone from you and I will put into you a new heart that is alive to God, sensitive to him.

This is also the reason that when I speak to a non-Christian, I don’t aim to over-power him with intellectual arguments. To touch him in his mind first is to get to the wrong order of things. If you crush him intellectually, he feels humiliated. If you win him intellectually, he is only going to be an intellectual Christian. We don’t want that. We want God to work in his heart; touch him at the place that it matters, because our heart is at the very depth of our person.

When I see God speaking to a person, there is the joy, and we weep because God has touched us in our hearts. And do you notice how hard we fight against it? We don’t want to weep. Yesterday, I was holding back my tears. I was choking, I was fighting, I was grinding my teeth. And if you have false teeth, it might be a very expensive proposition to grind down your teeth like this. Maybe when it comes to that, you should take out your teeth first because it would be less expensive. And if we fight hard enough, some of us might end up with false teeth too!

Our hearts are really by nature quite hard, and I speak for myself. I am a very hard person and sometimes, I’m distressed by the fact that I am so unemotional. Those of us who aimed as our ambition to become military people realize that the first thing we need to do is to become unemotional, to be hard. I look back and I’m sorry for the years I trained myself in hardness. Do you know to what extent I trained myself in hardness? I used to go to the British Council in Shanghai, especially to watch films on medical surgery being con­ducted. Watching all this blood spurting around makes most people feel very sickly. So I thought, “I’m going to be a military man, so I’m going to sit and watch this film on operations emotionless.” I watched people being cut open, sewn up, and I forced myself to look until I could have no more feelings, no more emotional reactions. Many people go into operation theaters and pass out until they begin to pull themselves together. I presume that doctors don’t harden their hearts. At least I hope not. I think their attitude changes and they begin to think, “I’m doing this in order to help that person.” But I was not watching the films on operations with the intention of helping anyone. I was watching with the purpose of becoming emotionless.

With this kind of training, it makes things harder and harder for God to work in my heart. When God was going to work in my heart, I said, “Emotionalism!” So I hardened my heart more so as not to feel. When I see these people weeping, I would think, “Oh! Sentimental lot!” I wonder how is God going to work in my heart? I was the only one with no emotion at all even at the great revival in London, where I saw the hearts of sixty people break down weeping and sobbing because they were convicted of sin. Our Brother Dennis was also there. The big fellow next to me was wetting my hymn book with his tears, but I was thinking to myself, “Why can’t he pull himself together? What’s he ruining my hymn book for?” I was totally emotionless. It was just terrible! How was God going to work in my heart?

When I read in John 11:35 that the Lord Jesus wept, I felt he really disappoints me. “You don’t weep, Jesus. You’ve got to be a man!” I thought men don’t weep. And there is Paul saying, “I weep.” He’s another softie.

Then I began to realize I was the fool. God couldn’t speak to my heart. I had to learn to say, “Lord, I’m willing to learn to weep. My heart is so hard. How can you set my heart on fire if I’m a stony person?” So the first step is that God touches us in our heart in this way. I confess I still fight back, but now I learn to give thanks.

II. God works into our soul: Our whole person is affected; our expression changes

What happens after that? If we stop with the heart, that would be another mistake. We cannot stop there. From the heart, God works into our whole person. The soul in the Bible means our whole personality, our whole character, our whole life. The whole person is called the soul. So in Genesis, we read that when God created Adam, he became a “living soul,” a whole living person, a living character, a living personality.

If we just leave it at the heart, it just becomes a passing emotion. If we stop God at that point and say, “I’m satisfied, God, don’t go any further,” we are going to make a mistake because God works from the heart to the soul. The whole person, our whole life is affected by God’s working. We thank God for that because only then we see things begin to happen.

It’s very interesting that when a person comes to God, his whole expression changes. I’ve seen many people somehow look more beautiful when they come to God. I often said, “Is this my imagina­tion, or has the person become more good-looking for some reason?” Really, something has changed. Really, for some reason, their inner beauty begins to find expression outwardly. It’s truly remarkable because you begin to see that from the heart, it is now progressing to the soul; it’s beginning to find outward expression. You cannot just keep it in the heart, it has to express itself outwardly if it is going to become effective.

III. God’s redemption must also affect our mind

The third thing which is very important for us is, it must affect also the mind.

The word “mind” is the Greek word, dianoia, which has three meanings and all of these are important for us.

1. Intelligence, understanding, insight to see God and spiritual truths

If you want to progress in the Christian life, it is essential not just to have a profound personal experience of God’s work in your heart, and see it reflected outwardly, but also to have this transformation impact your mind. The first meaning of “mind” means it affects my understanding, my intelligence, my insight.

When our experience of God’s working affects my understanding and my intelligence, ask, “What does this mean? What is happening here?” It is very important to do this. The person who uses his mind does not just let it be an experience. He also stands back and ana­lyzes his experience. He is saying, “What is happening here?” Being a Christian never means obliterating the mind. The mind is fully engaged in analyzing.

It is my nature always to think, to reason, to analyze. I think I’m very good at making my life very hard for myself because I have endless questions. That is why in a discussion such as our question time, I don’t have to prepare for it because there is hardly any question that anyone ever asks that I have never already asked myself and sorted through and through again.

It was so hard for me to become a Christian because I had to think everything through, and it was a long and bitter struggle. That is why when a dear sister said to me yesterday, apologizing that she took so long to become a Christian, I said, “There’s no need to apologize. It was the same with me. I struggled so hard to become a Christian.” It was such a difficult struggle. I had to be thoroughly convinced. I had to analyze every aspect in my mind. Do you say this is the Word of God? Why is it the Word of God? How do we know this is the Word of God? Why should I accept that this is the Word of God? Oh! I reasoned and struggled.

It is important that we ask ourselves about what happened at the camp yesterday. What does this mean? We acknowledge that this is God at work. We did not have any soft music or soft lights. And I feel so ashamed when I compare myself with our dear brother Don who is so straight, so honest, so true. I say to my shame that I am more sophisticated, and I am always so afraid that maybe I still have too much from my old life. That is why I stress that it must be a clean break with the past. We can be too clever for ourselves. I ensnare myself in too much logic, too much skill, too much cleverness. I could prove almost anything I want to prove if I just apply my mind to it. That scared me because in our cleverness, we might make fools of ourselves. We might end up in error simply because we are too smart. It’s extremely dangerous. So our minds must gain under­standing, that is, we allow the mind to reflect and examine our actions. It is very important for us that we can look at what hap­pened at camp, and see what God is doing in our midst, and how we may consolidate what we have gained.

It is important that we function with our minds spiritually and not just academically, because when we function academically, all too often, we function carnally. And when we do that, we will lose what is spiritual. The mind is only a tool, and when we let the servant become the boss, we are in big trouble. This is very important for us to grasp. We must ensure that our minds love God completely so that they can function spiritually.

This intelligence, this tool that God has given to us, too often be­comes our boss and we think that this tool has to decide everything. Well, the mind is simply something that analyzes. It is like eyes that look in order to see more clearly, therefore we should look in order to see more clearly. But don’t think that what your eyes cannot see is not there because we make fools of ourselves again. Or we think we can see everything and that we have not missed seeing anything, then we also make fools of ourselves.

There are three things concerning the word “mind” in the meaning in Scripture. The first has to do with our intelligence, our understanding, our insight. A non-Christian can be very intelligent, very clever and yet very blind. He cannot see spiritual things. His mind somehow does not function on the spiritual level and that is a disaster. If you talk to him about physics, he understands physics. If you talk to him about chemistry, he understands chemistry. If you talk to him about mathematics, he understands mathematics. But when you talk to him about spiritual things, his mind is blank! The mind somehow is blind. That is what the Scripture says. The mind cannot see without God.

No wonder when we came to God, the mind was suddenly redeemed as well. The mind suddenly had the blindfold taken off it. Suddenly, I discovered I could see things that I never saw before. My mind entered a new dimension of insight. That is a very important thing. This is why I said that I don’t try to convince a non-Christian intellectually because he cannot see. It is like convincing a blind man that there is such a color as red. He says, “Nonsense! I don’t see any red color.” How are you going to prove to him that there is such a thing as red color? You can go on talking until your tongue is dry but he doesn’t know what “red” means. But once his eyes are open, he sees red. You don’t have to spend all day convincing him about what is red. This is something very important. There is an aspect of life that without God the intelligence cannot see, and you have to experience this to understand.

That is why we have to start in this order again: from the heart to the soul, to the mind. And many evangelists, or what are called apologists today, make the mistake because they try to prove the Christian faith by argument. It’s like trying to argue a blind man into believing something. The fact is he really cannot see, so it doesn’t exist for him. But when God first works in your heart, and it comes through into your soul and then reaches your mind, you are amazed! You could see things you couldn’t see before. That is why the Scripture speaks of this parallel: Once I was blind but now I see.

I realize when I look back now. I used to argue with Christians, and quite frankly, I used to make minced meat of Christians because most Christians are not terribly good at arguing. Since I was trained in these skills, I knew how to tie him up in knots. Yet I was the fool. I could beat him in argument because he could not explain a matter to me. A blind man can beat me in argument any day by simply saying, “There is no such thing as red. There is no way you can prove the existence of red to me.” Well, he is right. There is no way I can prove the existence of red to him because he cannot see. He lacks a certain faculty. What’s the use of trying to prove it to him?

That is why I have said many times, we must let God work in his heart. That is why again and again, I say you have got to meet with God. Unless you meet with God, all my talk to you is a waste of time. We are getting nowhere. But when you come to God, as many of you who have recently come to him will discover, you will begin to see. I say “begin to see” because in the beginning, you begin to see but it’s rather hazy, not too sharp yet. It’s like when the light is suddenly switched on in the dark, you know there is light but you cannot open your eyes as it’s blinding you. Gradually, your eyes adjust and things you did not see before begin to get very clear indeed. So the first has to do with intelligence.

2. Disposition – a way of thinking, an attitude

The second has to do with disposition. Disposition is a way of think­ing or what we usually mean by the word “attitude.” We love God means it becomes an attitude of mind. The intelligence now begins to see spiritually what we could not see before. But then it becomes a way of thinking. You will notice that a spiritual man thinks in a certain way. And when you conduct a conversation with him, you’ll notice that there is a certain disposition in him. And that disposition is part of this mind.

3. Purpose or plan – the mind decides and plans

The third thing about mind in the Greek means purpose or plan. This means to say, the mind always expresses itself in a definite purpose or plan.

When you have been redeemed, you begin to live your life according to a new plan, a new direction, a new goal. And this is what I mean by consolidation.

The camp will have been lost to us if we don’t have a plan, if we don’t begin to use our minds and say, “I see something here that I never saw before. I see what the church ought to be and what it can be. It can be because I have experienced it. It ought to be because that is what the Scripture has taught. Therefore I’m going to have a plan, by the grace of God, of how to let this love of God, this purpose of God be fulfilled in the church now.

I am going to first start with it in my life. Since this can be done, and I have seen that it can be done, I’m going to implement it in my life now. I am also going to study the dangers and the pitfalls of how I might do something in such a way as not to lose this vision. We are going to study how to consolidate this. I am going to work out a plan first, about how to make it a daily reality in my life, then in my Bible study group or in my disciple-training group, and then in the whole church. That is called consolidation.

We have calmly, quietly begun to consolidate our spiritual being so that when the Enemy counter-attacks us as he certainly will, we will not only hold off the attack but also have held our positions and be ready to make the next advance. These are things that are extremely important for us to grasp.

That is why Paul is a spiritual giant, and I am trying to share with you the secret of being a spiritual giant. That is, let God work as fully as possible in your heart. Then let that work go through your whole soul, your whole life, affecting your character and then into your mind, putting your mind, this tool, fully at the service of righteous­ness and truth, understanding the matter so as to be able to consolidate your position.

Why do I say this is Paul’s secret? Paul is not a man who simply works by emotions. Paul was a man of great depth because his mind functioned so spiritually, so clearly, so effectively, so systematically, with purpose and direction all the time. That is why he says in 1 Corinthians 14:14-15, he saw many Christians who always like to function only on the level of the heart and the soul, or “of the spirit” if you like. Paul says it is very, very good to function on the level of the heart, and of the soul, or of the spirit, but it is important to let your spiritual mind become active in God’s work. Paul wants his mind to be fruitful, and he says in 1 Corinthians 14:14-15.

This is the secret of this great man of God. There is his depth; there is his anchor; there is his direction. This is what we must clearly grasp if we are to press forward, from an experience, into a plan and purpose of spiritual life, and consolidate what God has granted to us so that next time we can move forward even further.

Consolidate and press forward with spiritual oneness of mind

So Paul says to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1:10 that, not only some of us should be using the mind but we should be united in the same mind.

It is very important for Christians to be united not only in the same love but in the same mind. Otherwise there is great danger that dissension comes in, problems come in between God’s people because some have experienced things but they have not seen deeply into it, therefore they cannot be united in the same mind. Here we must press forward together from a common experience to a oneness of mind, and so we can win this battle together.

We shall look at the remaining verses in Luke 21 next time because they are about watching and praying. The Lord Jesus says in verse 34a:

What happens with dissipation and drunkenness? Have you been drunk? I hope not. But if you have had a bit too much alcohol, you will notice that your mind becomes very blurred; it cannot think clearly anymore. And the Lord Jesus doesn’t want that. He wants your mind to be crystal clear. So he says, “Don’t get spiritually drunk. Be watchful, be alert, because we need to consolidate to press forward.

IV. God’s redemption must finally affect our whole strength

Therefore without reserve, we give every ounce of our energy and strength into building of God’s kingdom, into loving him and into loving our neighbor without holding anything back, so that the fullness of his purpose may be accomplished in us.

This is what I would like you to share with you today, that together, through the coming days, we may ask God in our quiet time before him, “Lord, what did you do in my heart? What did you do in the hearts of these brothers and sisters? Please help me understand how to continue to carry forth this redemption—a setting free from bondage that you have done in us—into the lives of those who have not experienced it. Why have they not experienced it? In what way can they experience it? How can we make it a common vision in your whole church?”

Let us be quiet before God in prayer.