Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified by the Good Land - 11

Message Title: The Surp;us of the Produce of the Good Land and the Corporate Worship of God the Father in Truthfulness

on Lord's Day morning meetings, how do we come? what do we have? what can we offer? have we labored, produced, the produce from my living as a child or God? do I have least some surplus, which is for praising the Lord, for woshiping God? 

I. We use the word surplus because the people of Israel put aside a certain portion of their produce from the labor on the good land for the purpose of worshipping God

this is the age,, when God is seeking for worship, while Satan, the enemy is trying his best to steal the worship from God. we need to open our beings to the Lord, so the Lord can establish in us the unshakable committment to worship God and God only. 

the enjoyment of the surplus of the produce of the good land typifies the corporate enjoyment of Christ as our worship to God. according to the New Testament fulfillment of this type, when we come to worship God in a corporate way, we must bring the Christ whom we have experienced. 

Deutoronomy 16:16 Three times a year all your males shall appear before Jehovah your God in the place which He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles. And they shall not appear before Jehovah empty-handed;

there was one commandment to the Israel people in Old Testament that, they cannot come to worship God empty-handed. to us today also the same, we cannot come empty-handed. we must bring the Christ we have experienced.  many times when we come to the Lord's Day, do we all bring the surplus, or do we come empty-handed? 

II. if we faithfully labor on the all-inclusive Christ, we will have the riches of Christ as the produce to exhibit Christ in the church meetings

1 Corinthians 14:26 What then, brothers? Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.

the proper life of Christians is to labor on Christ every day and thus have the rich surplus of Christ to bring to the meetings for a rich exhibition of Christ. we are not coming to the meetings to display anything related to ourselves or our natural constitution; we are here to exhibit Christ. God the Father is waiting for this, an exhibition of Christ. but the enemey is fighting against this. 

through our daily experiences of the riches of Christ, these riches will become an exhibition of the produce of Christ. our meetings should always be an exhibition to show forth what Christ is, what Christ has, and what Christ does. in some of the places, what is exhibited is some special persons with their characteristics, their eloquence, their personal charm, etc. but this is not acceptable to God the Father. the only One accpetable to God the Father is His Son. we should only exhibit Christ, and Christ only. therefore, we need to contact the Lord daily in our personal life and then come to the meetings with the realization and understanding that we are coming to exhibit Christ and share Christ with others. this need to be wrought into our being, why we come to the meetings? we are coming to the meetings to be part of the corporate exhibition of Christ. 

Colossians 1:12 Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you for a share of the allotted portion of the saints in the light;

Colossians 1:13 Who delivered us out of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

we meet to exhibit not only the Christ given to us by God but also the Christ we have produced, the Christ on whom we have labored and whom we have experienced; this is the Christ whom we come together to exhibit. through our laboring by excersing our spirit to contact the Lord in every situation we are in, we are laboring on our portion of the good land, i.e. we are laboring on our portion of the all-inclusive Christ. we have a portion of Christ that no one else has or ever will have. to learn to labor on our portion, we will bring forth Christ for our need, our experience and enjoyment, but even more, for worshipping God. but we are not doing this by our effort, but the Christ dwelling in us, making His home in us, is enabling us to bring forth Christ and the riches of Christ. because our portion is so unique and the members in the Body all need our unique portion of Christ, we need to continually labor on Christ, so that we will have the rich surplus to bring to the meetings to exhibit to the other members, also for the satisfaction of the Father. 

III.  we need to labor on the all-inclusive Christ in order to have a surplus of Christ to bring to the church meetings for the corporate worship of God our Father

John 4:23 But an hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truthfulness, for the Father also seeks such to worship Him.

John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.

for our worship of the Him, the Father requires that we come to Him with a harvest of Christ; thus, we need to come to the church meetings with the riches of Christ. the Father has been waiting for centuries the true worshippers. we should respond to Him in this way. First, we realize that God the Father requires such worshippers. Secondly, we say Amen to the Father's desire for the true worshippers. at the same time, we also realize that we cannot do this in ourselves, that we cannot be true worshippers in ourselves. so we open to the Lord, and allow the Lord to d this in us, through us, and with us. 

it is crucial that we diligently labor on Christ to have our hands full of Christ and then come to the church meetings to enjoy this rich and glorious Christ with 

God's children and with God the Father Himself. since we have a mingled spirit, in any situation, anytime and anywhere, we can always labor on Christ. 

IV. according to John 4:23-24, we need to worship God our Father in spirit and in truthfulness

"truthfulness" in John 4:23-24 denotes the divine reality becoming man's genuiness and sincerity for the true worship of God. in order to have this truthfulness, we need the divine reality to saturate our whole being so that in human way, but humanly divine, our very being, our person, our speaking, is sincere and genuine. 

to worship the Father in truthfulness is to worship Him with the Christ who has saturated our being to become our personal reality through our experience and enjoyment of the Triune God as the divine reality. 

so the key words in this message is:

1. laboring: labor on our portion of Christ

2. surplus: to bring the best to offer to God the Father in worship

3. exhibit: to come together corporately to exhibit the Christ we have been experiencing

4. worship: the enemy wants people to worship him. there is a battle concerning worship. but we will worship God

5. truthfulness