Scripture Reading: Matt. 24:45-51; 25:14-30

DAY 1 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 2 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 3 Outline　MorningRevival

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DAY 6 Outline　MorningRevival

«　WEEK 4　DAY 1　»

　　Matt. 24:45-46 Who then is the faithful and prudent slave, whom the master has set over his household to give them food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.

　　In what way should we be faithful in the service? What shall we do? First, in Matthew 24:45-51...the Lord charged us, commissioned us, to minister something to His household, that is, to the believers in the church. According to verse 45, what we minister is food…. At the proper time we have to minister food, the life supply, to the Lord’s people. Do not say that others have a gift of teaching to teach you the Word of God and minister spiritual food to you but that you do not have such a gift. There is not such a thought here. All of the Lord’s servants received the gift for their commission. (CWWL, 1985, vol. 5, “The Way to Practice the Lord’s Present Move,” pp. 514-515)

　　Whoever serves food knows the proper time. If you are serving food every day, you have to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner. To buy a cup of coffee and a doughnut for breakfast is the lazy way. If we are like this in the spiritual realm, we will be poor slaves to minister the life supply to the master’s folks at the proper time. The proper time in the morning is breakfast. Also, good wives prepare the best sandwiches for their husbands to bring to the office for lunch at the proper time and are accustomed to preparing a big dinner for their family.

　　In like manner, whenever we meet together, this is one of the proper times, the appointed times, for you to minister the proper food to the Lord’s folks…. If I did not labor adequately in the Word and came to speak to you, I would just be ministering to you “a cup of coffee and some doughnuts.” To cook a nourishing, good breakfast, requires your diligence. According to the context of this parable, the faithful one is the diligent one. Faithful here equals diligent….We must be diligent in seeking the Word so that we could prepare to serve good food when we come to the meeting. The eating time is the proper time, and the meeting time is the proper time….The meeting times are the proper times when we all have to minister some portion of the life supply to our folks, to our fellow believers, to our possessions.

　　To care for them is simply to feed them, to minister food to them. To the sinners the proper food we minister is the gospel of Christ. The nurses in the hospitals know that they must serve the patients with different meals. Different food is ministered to different patients to meet their specific needs. It is the same with us. The entire earth is a hospital, full of sickness and full of all kinds of sick people. The church in a good sense is also a hospital, full of sick people. Therefore, we have to minister different words to them at the proper time. The Lord’s possessions are always around you. The believers, the churches, and even the more all the sinners are around you. It is your duty, your obligation, to minister food to them. If they are sinners, you have to minister the gospel of grace to them as the food they need. If they are believers sick of something, then you need to minister some word from the Bible that suits their condition, either to nourish them, to heal them, to strengthen them, or to wake them up. To do this is to be a faithful and prudent slave, ministering the proper food to the Lord’s possessions, which are all kinds of persons, at the proper time. When you enter into your office, you must realize that this is one of the proper times to minister the proper food of the gospel to the unbelieving ones. When you go to school, ... all the classmates around you are the Lord’s possessions delivered to you that you may take the opportunity, the proper time, to minister the gospel to them. (CWWL, 1985, vol. 5, “The Way to Practice the Lord’s Present Move,” pp. 516-517)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1985, vol. 5, “The Way to Practice the Lord’s Present Move,” chs. 8, 10

«　WEEK 4　DAY 2　»

　　Matt. 24:48-50 But if that evil slave says in his heart, My master delays, and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eats and drinks with the drunken, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know.

　　When we mistreat a fellow believer by criticizing, opposing, or despising him, in the eyes of the Lord, that is to beat him. We have to say a strong word here. We can easily fall into this danger without any kind of realization. We can fall into criticizing the brothers and sisters. Sometimes we may oppose or despise some of the saints. Perhaps we would even fight against them. This is to beat the Lord’s slaves, who are our fellow slaves. (CWWL, 1979, vol. 2, “Basic Lessons on Service,” p. 101)

　　[In Matthew 24:48 the slave said], “My master delays.” The slave believed that the Lord was coming again, but he also believed that He was delaying His coming. Anyone who does not believe that the Lord is coming quickly is an evil slave. The reason for the slave’s mistake, according to what the Lord said, is in verse 48. Even though with his mouth he said that the Lord would come quickly, in his heart he still considered that the Lord would delay. This kind of person is in peril. If one does not take the attitude that the Lord will come quickly, he will not be watchful.

　　Many people do not want the Lord to come quickly. They are afraid that when the Lord comes, He will spoil and terminate their plans. They cannot pray John’s prayer: “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20). We must have an attitude and a desire for the Lord to come quickly…. If you think that the Lord will delay, He will come sooner than you expect. (CWWN, vol. 15, p. 302)

　　All of us should be those who are feeding the Lord’s people at the proper time (Matt. 24:45) and using the Lord’s talents in full (25:20, 22). On the negative side, we should not be those beating our fellow slaves (24:49). You may not do your duty to perform your service, but instead you are criticizing and sometimes even strongly opposing the brothers. You are not doing the work but beating the fellow slaves. Some of the sisters are always busy on the telephone. When they hear something good about the brothers, they are not interested in letting anyone know. When they hear something bad about certain brothers, especially the elders, they become busy on the telephone. This is why many of the elders in the local churches are afraid to do anything wrong. Once they do something wrong, nearly everyone knows through the use of the telephone. These telephone calls are all beatings.

　　When something negative happens to any of the saints, some can never retain it. Passing on the news of this negative situation is a kind of beating. Sometimes you may have a subtle way of praying in the prayer meeting for a saint who is in a negative situation….You pray for people, but about ten percent of your prayer is a kind of judging. This is beating. The elders in one location may criticize the elders in another location. This is also beating the fellow slaves.

　　You waste your time of service in beating. Instead of doing the service, you beat the brothers, the fellow slaves. Many of the brothers can testify that they never heard me beating others by criticizing or exposing them. My only burden is to release messages. Although I have no intention of exposing anyone, many are exposed by the light in the messages I release. That is not my job but the Lord’s work. We all have to stop our criticizing, judging, opposing, and murmuring as a kind of beating. We must spend our time, our energy, and our everything to do a positive service for the Lord’s interest. (CWWL, 1985, vol. 5, “The Way to Practice the Lord’s Present Move,” pp. 539-540)

　　Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 15, pp. 297-302, 337-351; CWWN, vol. 57, “The Resumption of Watchman Nee’s Ministry,” pp. 239-240

«　WEEK 4　DAY 3　»

　　Matt. 24:48-50 But if that evil slave says in his heart, My master delays, and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eats and drinks with the drunken, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know.

　　The Lord’s word in Matthew 24 is a parable. Since it is a parable, it must be interpreted. To eat and drink “with the drunken” [v. 49b] is to keep company with worldly people, who are drunk with worldly things, …worldly enjoyment. This is the danger of not using our gift. Once we become a person who keeps company with worldly people, we would not be faithful to the Lord in using the gift He gives us, so we fall into danger. (CWWL, 1979, vol. 2, “Basic Lessons on Service,” p. 101)

　　[To eat and drink with the drunken] (Matt. 24:49) is to drift away further, a further fall from beating the fellow slaves….The worldly people are drunk and even drugged with worldly things. They are stupefied with the present age. To eat and drink with them is to enjoy what they enjoy. In a good sense, when you are beating the saints, you are still interested in the church life…. Because you are so “burdened for the church” and so interested in the church life, you criticize the brothers and the sisters.

　　Once you make the decision to forget about the church, to have no interest in the church, you enter into the loving of the world, and you keep company with worldly people who are always being stupefied by this age. A saint who loves the world has no heart to talk about what elders are good or bad. He may once have been beating his fellow slaves, but now he is fully occupied with worldly enjoyment. He is now eating and drinking with the drunken. Nearly every day may be a happy day to him, and nearly every weekend a pleasant weekend, because he is enjoying the stupefying of the worldly things.

　　The slothful slaves who are not so faithful in the Lord’s commission have an excuse that the Lord is not coming back immediately, that He is delaying His coming (v. 48). As a result, they begin to mistreat fellow believers and partake of the worldly things. Their excuse is that if the Lord would return right now, everything would be solved; they would not have the time to love the world. However, the Lord’s word in Matthew 24 tells us He would not take this kind of excuse. At His coming back He will cut off, or cut asunder, His unfaithful slaves (v. 51). To cut asunder does not mean to cut into pieces. When we were saved, we became attached to Christ, the anointed One (2 Cor. 1:21). Even if we are in a backslidden condition, the Lord will not cut us off. But if we remain unfaithful and slothful, at His coming back He will cut us off from this attachment. He will carry out a cutting asunder between us and Him. We will be cut off from His glorious presence into a place that will be the portion of the hypocrites. The portion of the unbelievers is eternal perdition, but the portion of the slothful slaves is a temporary, dispensational punishment.

　　Instead of making so many telephone calls, use the time to go to contact your next-door neighbor, and give him a rainbow booklet that we have published. If you visited one of your neighbors once every two weeks, continuously, regularly, properly, and with a sincere burden and some prayer, do you not believe this person could be caught by the Lord? We cannot take anything as an excuse. We cannot say that many have been poisoned against us or that our particular area is a place full of Christians. We must ask ourselves how much time we have spent in visiting others with gospel tracts, with the Bible, and with some of the rainbow booklets. If you try this week after week and even day after day, you will see the result. The Bible tells us that the husbandmen, or farmers, should labor with patience, expecting to see the gathering (1 Cor. 9:10; 2 Tim. 2:6). (CWWL, 1985, vol. 5, “The Way to Practice the Lord’s Present Move,” pp. 540-543)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1979, vol. 2, “Basic Lessons on Service,” lsn. 13

«　WEEK 4　DAY 4　»

　　Matt. 25:14-15 For the kingdom of the heavens is just like a man about to go abroad, who called his own slaves and delivered to them his possessions. To one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability. And he went abroad.

　　In Matthew 25:14-30…his possessions signifies the church (Eph. 1:18) with all the believers, who are His household (Matt. 24:45)….Talents in this parable signifies spiritual gifts (Rom. 12:6; 1 Cor. 12:4; 1 Pet. 4:10; 2 Tim. 1:6)….The New Testament... speaks of the church of God (Acts 20:28; 1 Cor. 1:2), the church of Christ (Rom. 16:16), and the church of the saints (1 Cor. 14:33). The church is the possession of all the saints, the believers.

　　You cannot say that you are not gifted…. For this reason I have always encouraged you to function….This is not my teaching; this is the Bible’s teaching (1 Cor. 14:24, 26, 29-32)….Do not just be stuck to your chair….You have to jump up to say something. For you to speak is to minister food to the Lord’s household at the proper time.

　　All the sinners [also] belong to the Lord; they are all the Lord’s possessions….The Lord has surely delivered to us the church with all the believers and all the sinners that we may take care of them for His sake. (CWWL, 1985, vol. 5, “The Way to Practice the Lord’s Present Move,” pp. 515-517)

　　Matthew 25:14 says that [a] man delivered his possessions to his slaves. The slaves signify believers in the aspect of service (1 Cor. 7:22-23; 2 Pet. 1:1; James 1:1; Rom. 1:1)….I believe that the possessions delivered to the slaves include the gospel, the truth, the believers, and the church…. If you do not care for these things, you will not have any talents.

　　We should not wait in an indifferent way for the Lord to give us something. No, we must diligently seek the gospel and the truth. We should be eager to know the fall of man, redemption, regeneration, salvation, the cleansing of the blood, and the washing of the Spirit. All these are aspects of the full gospel…. We need to [also know and] experience the truth concerning the church, God’s eternal purpose, and God’s economy. Eventually, these truths will become our talent. Then we shall be able to minister them to others. In this way, the Lord’s possessions become our talent. Furthermore, we need to pray, “Lord, I want to take care of the saints and bear their burdens. My heart is for them.” If we have a heart for the saints and are burdened for them, they, the Lord’s possession, will be given to us as a talent.

　　Do not drop any burden that the Lord has given you….The Lord has a vast work in His recovery. For this work, He needs thousands of young brothers and sisters to be raised up to bear the responsibility.

　　The talent is not something of your natural birth; rather, it is altogether related to your burden. If you take up a burden, you will receive a talent.

　　Although the talents are not our ability, but the Lord’s possession, they are delivered to us according to our ability. Our ability is constituted by God’s creation and our learning. The capacity of our ability is based upon the willingness of our heart. If we do not have any willingness in our heart, then we shall not have the capacity to receive the talent. (Life-study of Matthew, pp. 759, 761-762)

　　Moses learned to serve God according to His leading and to trust in Him (Acts 7:34-36; Heb. 11:28)…. Although he was very capable, he did not use his natural ability. His natural ability was dealt with, so it became an ability in resurrection…. If our ability is not dealt with, it is separate from God’s move. But after being dealt with by the cross, our ability becomes one with God’s move. Actually, God was wrought into Moses’ ability. His ability eventually was full of God. (CWWL, 1979, vol. 2, “Basic Lessons on Service,” pp. 143-144)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Genesis, msgs. 83-85; CWWL, 1979, vol. 2, “Basic Lessons on Service,” lsn. 20

«　WEEK 4　DAY 5　»

　　Matt. 25:15-17 To one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability. And he went abroad. Immediately he who had received the five talents went and traded with them and gained another five. Similarly, he who had received the two gained another two.

　　To trade with the talents [Matt. 25:16-17] signifies using the gift the Lord has given us, and to gain other talents signifies that the gift we received from the Lord has been used to the fullest extent, without any loss or waste.

　　According to Matthew 24, the slave is to supply food to those in the household. This refers to the ministering of the nourishing word with the riches of Christ as the life supply to those in the Lord’s house. In chapter 25, however, it speaks of trading with the talents to cause the talents to multiply. Therefore, the result of our service has two aspects. The first aspect is that others are fed and given rich nourishment. The second aspect is that the Lord’s possessions are multiplied. For example, the more we preach the gospel, the richer the gospel becomes. It is the same with the truths. As we minister the truths to others, the truths multiply. This is also true of the saints and the churches. Both the believers and the churches will multiply. (Life-study of Matthew, p. 763)

　　The main emphasis in this parable is on the one-talented one, the one who received the smallest gift. It is very easy for the least-gifted ones to fail to make the proper use of their gift. As the earth signifies the world, so to dig in the earth signifies getting into the world. Any association, any involvement with the world, even a little worldly talk, will bury the Lord’s gift to us. Hiding the Lord’s silver signifies rendering the Lord’s gift useless, letting it lie waste under the cloak of certain earthly excuses. Any excuse for not using the Lord’s gift is to hide it. This is always the danger with the one-talented ones, those who consider their gift as the smallest.

　　With the one-talented slave in this parable, there is no multiplication…. Some may think that the one-talented slave did well in not losing his talent and in returning to the Lord what was His. The one-talented slave seemed to say, “Lord, here is what is Yours. You gave me one talent, and I have been faithful to keep, guard, protect, and preserve it. By Your mercy and grace, I have kept it.” But the issue of our service must be the multiplication of our talents. It is not the Lord’s will for us simply to maintain what He has given us. If you are faithful merely to keep the gospel, the truth, and the church without any multiplication, the Lord will say that you are slothful. Furthermore, He will call you an evil slave. In the eyes of the Lord, it is evil to bury the talent and not to multiply it. The Lord does not care for our argument or excuses. He cares only that the one talent is multiplied into two. This is a serious matter. Our service must issue in the feeding and satisfaction of others and in the multiplication of the talent. (Life-study of Matthew, pp. 763-764)

　　The slothful slave who was not faithful with the Lord’s talent... had an excuse [Matt. 25:24-25]….The Lord admitted that He is strict in what He demands of His slaves for His work and indicated that since the slothful slave knew this, he should have done something. The Lord admitted that in a sense He does not sow, yet He claims the reaping. He does not winnow, yet He claims of you the gathering. We may make many excuses that it is really hard to reap anything or to gather anything. We may present these excuses to the Lord at the judgment seat, putting the blame entirely upon Him….The Lord will not listen to our excuses but instead will cut us off from His presence and take away the gift He has given to us. This is not my teaching, but this is what the Lord told us in Matthew 24 and 25. (CWWL, 1985, vol. 5, “The Way to Practice the Lord’s Present Move,” p. 542)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Matthew, msg. 65

«　WEEK 4　DAY 6　»

　　Matt. 25:26-27 And his master answered and said to him, Evil and slothful slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I did not winnow. Therefore you should have deposited my money with the money changers; and when I came, I would have recovered what is mine with interest.

　　If you have received one talent, you need to use it. Before you come to a meeting, you need to pray, “Lord, I believe that I have a talent. I don’t want to bury my talent by getting involved with earthly things. Rather, I would like to use it to take care of others.” Show some love to those whose heart has grown cold. Go to see them or invite them to your home. As you spend time with the Lord and open to Him regarding whom you should take care of, He will burden you. As you contact others and have fellowship with them, you will spontaneously use your talent…. In this way, the one talent will become two, the two talents will become four, and the five talents will become ten. The talents, God’s possessions which have been committed to us, will be multiplied. If we are all faithful to practice this, the Lord’s recovery will truly multiply.

　　Depositing the money with the money changers [Matt. 25:27], the bankers, signifies using the Lord’s gift to lead others to salvation and to minister His riches to them. Interest signifies the profitable result we gain for the Lord’s work by using His gift. (Life-study of Matthew, pp. 769-770)

　　In a sense, we may say that the bankers are all the new ones, weak ones, young ones, and backsliding ones. We need to deposit the Lord’s possession with these bankers. The bankers are not the leading brothers, but the weaker ones, those who have problems. Suppose a certain brother is dissenting and speaks negatively about the church…. How good it would be for such a dissenting brother to be contacted, not by one of the elders, but by another brother in the church who loves him and cares for him! If a dissenting brother is contacted by a number of others, he will eventually come back to the church and praise the Lord for the church.

　　If you use your talent in this way to take care of others, you will not only multiply the talent, but you yourself will be in the third heaven and will quickly grow and be transformed. You will be renewed in the spirit of the mind, and among us there will be a marvelous testimony of the Body to the whole universe. The universe will see that we are not a religious gathering, but a living Body. For this, we all need to use our talent, the Lord’s possession. The result will be multiplication….The more we take care of the saints and the churches, the richer we become.

　　Matthew 25:28 says, “Take away therefore the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents.” Taking away the talent signifies that the Lord’s gift will be taken away from slothful believers in the coming kingdom. The giving of the talent to the one with ten talents signifies that the gift of faithful believers will be increased. To everyone who gains profit in the church age, more gift shall be given in the coming kingdom age; but from him who has not gained profit in the church age, even the gift he has shall be taken away from him in the coming kingdom age [v. 29].

　　Verse 30 says, “And cast out the useless slave into the outer darkness. In that place there will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.” This word, the same as in 24:51, indicates that 25:14-30 is a completion to 24:45-51 concerning faithfulness for the Lord’s work.

　　In our service we need to be faithful….Our faithfulness in service is related to the reward. If we are... faithful, …we shall be rewarded when the Lord comes back... [which] is to participate in the authority in the coming kingdom age. (Life-study of Matthew, pp. 770-771, 773-774)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Matthew, msg. 66; CWWL, 1972, vol. 2, “The Kingdom,” ch. 38