Video Transcript: Christ in You

This morning we continue in studying the book of Colossians and God's message to us from that great book and in a sense, we hit what is the core of the book of Colossians, Christ in you. And so let's listen to Word of God in Colossians one verses 24 through 29. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body. That is the church of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you. To make the Word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to His saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil struggling with all his energy, that he powerfully works within me. This ends the reading of God's Word and God always blesses His Word to those who listen. 

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. That's how this passage opens. And there have been great missionaries throughout the history of the church who rejoice in suffering. David Livingstone was a missionary to Africa, a medical missionary and an explorer whose desire was to see the gospel spread throughout Africa, and so he went to places no Christian had ever gone before and throughout the course of his mission, David Livingstone was mauled by a lion which left one arm permanently crippled. His house was burned during a war. His wife died of malaria. He was found dead on his knees praying, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey in London with honors because he was such a noted missionary. But the Africans who loved him refused to just send his body back so they took his heart out and buried it in Africa. Now, what did David Livingstone after having gone through so many things have to say? He says, I've never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talking about sacrifice I've made and spending so much of my life in Africa, it is emphatically no sacrifice rather say it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering or danger now and then may make us pause and cause the spirit to waver and the soul to sink. Well let this be only for a moment. All these are nothing compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us and for us. I never made a sacrifice. 

I never made a sacrifice the exact same words from Hudson Taylor missionary to China. Unspeakable joy all day long and every day was my happy experience. God even my God was a living bright reality. And all I had to do was joyful service. Hudson Taylor is the guy in the middle. He donned Chinese clothes, had a Chinese ponytail and lived as much like Chinese people as he could in order to reach people with the gospel and he found the China Inland Mission. Now he says I never made a sacrifice. He gave up his own culture, his on clothing, his own hairstyle. He served for 51 years as a missionary. He survived two typhoons on a voyage. He was once robbed of all that he had. On another occasion, he lost everything in a fire. Seven of his children died. His wife died of malaria. During the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, 58 missionaries who worked with him in the China Inland Mission were murdered and 21 of their children were murdered. And when the government was dealing with the matter of reparations, and payment, Hudson Taylor declined any payment for him or for the China Inland Mission because he wanted to show the meekness and gentleness of Christ. And he's the man who said, Well, I never made a sacrifice. He says, If I had a 1000 pounds China should have it. If I had 1000 lives China should have them. No, not China, but Christ. Can we do too much for him? Can we do enough for such a precious Savior? Now the key to all that is Christ in him. On Hudson Taylor's tombstone are these words “A man in Christ”. One of the things that meant most to him was this saying the Lord Jesus Christ received His Holiness begun. The Lord Jesus cherished his holiness advancing. The Lord Jesus counted upon his never absent would be holiness, complete. It was Christ and more of Christ and more of the Lord Jesus in his life that drove him and that gave him his joy in the midst of all the things that he went through. 

So today, we want to focus on Christ in you, this ability to rejoice in sufferings and all the other things that come with having Christ in you. And let me emphasize again, as I said before that to be a Christian is not just to hold correct opinions based on the Bible, though we should, or to get off the hook for sins, though we do, or to have a ticket to heaven, though we have that by faith in Christ.  But to be a Christian is to have Christ living inside you. And when we speak of eternal life, we don't actually just have eternal life though we do. We have the life of the Eternal. That's why it's eternal life. It is the life of God in the soul of man. It is the life, the indestructible life of Jesus Christ himself living in us. Now, that is why it's so disastrous and incomplete to think that Christianity is just a set of correct opinions or just forgiveness and a ticket to heaven. And meanwhile, life continues as usual. When you have the life of the Eternal Christ in you nothing can just go on as usual. 

As we think about Christ and you I want to point out, six things that come out of this passage. One is that Christ's suffering is your suffering. His mission is your mission. His mind is your mind. His glory is your glory. His life is your life, and his energy is your energy. And we'll see how each of these things is shown as we move through the passage. 

His suffering is your suffering. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh, I'm filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church. Now, that statement may sound strange to us for a couple of reasons, at least. One is the whole notion of rejoicing in suffering. Isn't suffering something that's just downright bad, and that you avoid and that you ought to pursue happiness that you want to be more American than the pursuit of happiness. But the notion that you might find happiness in suffering, now that sounds kind of strange to us. And one reason it sounds strange to us is that we prize prosperity and pleasure. And  so when sufferings come along, we don't think it's supposed to happen. And one author says, You know what, we became Christians we thought we got a ticket to Bermuda, and the plane landed in Iceland. Well, if you thought the ticket went to Bermuda, you weren't leading reading your Bible all that carefully. But it's a cultural thing that we prize prosperity and pleasure and so it comes as a bit of a shock when bad things happen. And even greater shock when somebody would say, I rejoice in these bad things that are going on in my  suffering for your sake. 

And the second part of that, I'm filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. Sounds quite a bit like heresy. Like Jesus suffering doesn't quite do the job. And so we need to add some other things on top of his suffering to finish out salvation. But maybe it sounds that way. Because once again, as Americans in particular, we're very individualistic, we think of the individual person. And we often overlook the interconnectedness among people not only, but as Christians, our interconnectedness with Christ. Because what's lacking in Christ's afflictions is for the sake of his body, that is the church. So there's something about that connection between body and head and all of us together that's involved in this suffering where his suffering is our suffering. 

Now, just to take a picture of how that goes, when Paul himself was converted, you remember a couple of things that were said. Jesus said to Paul, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. So evidently, Jesus continued to suffer in some form or another in the persecutions of his body. And a little bit later when Jesus called Ananias to go and speak to Paul and pray with him, he told Ananias now, I'm going to show Paul how much he must suffer for the sake of My name. So there you have it right at Paul's call. When Jesus came in for the first time, he said, you are persecuting me, and now I'm going to show you how much you get to suffer for me. You have a right there at the beginning that in Christ's sufferings we suffer. In our sufferings he suffers. In our Bible reading plan for this week, Romans eight one of the great chapters of the Bible about Christ via Spirit leading within us and one of the main chapters in the Bible about what that means in relationship to suffering. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children then heirs. Heirs of God and fellow heirs of Christ provided we suffer with Him, in order that we may also be glorified with Him. If we want the glory, there's not a shortcut that just avoids the suffering. You in one form or another are identified with Christ's suffering. 

Now, this doesn't mean that something was lacking in Jesus sufferings when he died on the cross and paid the price for the sins of the world. His atoning suffering is complete, but his missionary suffering or his body suffering continues, and it will continue until the old age is completely gone. And the new era has completely come in. You see, during the overlap, the Bible says there is an old wicked age that's going out and a new living age that's coming in. but during the time of overlap, the time between Jesus first coming in the Second Coming, there's a struggle. On the one hand, it's a struggle, that old age fighting back and causing lots of pain and viewed from a different perspective, it's that new age, still kind of birth pains, trying to have the baby so to speak, trying to bring forth the fullness of life and when that is given birth, then the pain is gone, and only that New Era initiated and begun by Jesus Christ continues. So we suffer with Christ during this overlap of the two ages while all of creation is groaning, until the sons of God are revealed fully. 

Now, not everybody agrees with that theology. Here's a man has been making the news lately for allegations of sexual misconduct. I don't know if those charges are true or not. I just know what he preaches. And one of his main messages is God wants you to be rich and he certainly wants me to be rich. You know, with a $3 million income with a car, a Bentley that costs $350,000 and a $50 million cathedral, you might be pardoned if in watching his lifestyle and listening to his message, you got the notion that maybe we don't have to suffer with Him in order that we also be glorified with Him. When he was asked about his lavish lifestyle and his huge income, his reply was, we're not just a church. We're an international corporation. We're not just a bumbling bunch of preachers who can't talk and all we're doing is baptizing babies. I deal with the White House. I deal with Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister of Britain. So I'm not just one of those schmoes who preaches. I'm a big shot, and I deserve all that money. 

Now, I know a big shot too. In fact, he lives in me. But he has a little approach to these matters. Genuine preachers deal with Jesus Christ, not just Tony Blair. Well, his suffering is your suffering. It's been granted to you. I mean, it's a gift from God, Paul says in Philippians one. It has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but suffer for his sake. I mean, it's kind of an empty thing if all you got was some correct opinions and trusting in Him. It's really great if you can really identify with him and suffer for his sake. And he says, for his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection. Paul wants to know Jesus, and I trust that you want to know Jesus. But sometimes we don't understand all this involved in knowing Jesus. If you really want to know Jesus and the risen Christ and His resurrection life, I want to know Him in the power of his resurrection and share his sufferings. If you want to know Jesus, there's not a shortcut to knowing him more deeply and share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, I might attain to the resurrection from the dead. 

In Second Corinthians one he speaks about the comfort that God brings to us. And he says, For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort too. you don't get to be selective about what you share of Jesus. You share in all of Jesus and you share in all of his body that includes the troubles. Always carrying in the body the death of Christ, so the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. So again, and again and again, you have this. If you're part of Jesus body, you suffer with Him and for Him and for the sake of the rest of the body. So his suffering is your suffering. 

Next thing is His mission is your mission. Paul says of which that is the body of Christ, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you. The word minister can also simply be translated servants, but Paul's a servant of the church, because God has given him a stewardship, a task, a commission, a realm of responsibility, something that he's supposed to do. In this case, something really big to be the pioneer missionary to the Gentiles and to spread the Gospel throughout the whole Roman world. And God gave Paul this stupendous revelation to spread and he wanted Paul to carry that out. He also gives you a commission. And of course the word commission is just co-mission. It is a mission together with God. You are on the mission of God. God is on his mission through you.

God gives each of us a stewardship, a mission, a domain, where Christ acts through our actions. Where Christ reigns through your responsibility. Take a moment to digest that. His mission is your mission. And so Jesus chooses to reign over different aspects of reality and different domains and spheres and some of that he assigns to you and Christ living in you gets a sense of what Christ wants to rule and do through you. I think a few different examples. One may simply be a calling to a particular kind of ministry. I sense the strong call to the ministry of preaching the gospel when I was a young man. And God laid that on my heart through Christ me and I really couldn't get rid of it or shake it or try to do something else. And believe me, I tried. Now, there are different forms of suffering. The kind of suffering I wanted to avoid then was I knew I would go into training for ministry in my particular situation, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and German. I don't like languages. I got A's in them all but I hate studying languages and learning vocabulary and all that kind of stuff. It was just something I didn't want to do, but it was, that of course is minor compared to people losing seven of their children. It was minor suffering, but a strong sense of a commission. 

To take a different example. I remember when talking with Debbie Hurt, she said the Lord really gave her a concern and a heart for the people of India. I mean, why not Swaziland? Or, you know, some other countries. But that's the one that she really started caring about and wanting to mobilize people for. We heard about what Hudson Taylor had to say about China. He says, Man, if I had 1000 lives, I give them all for China. Because God gave him such a love for China because that was going to be his sphere, his stewardship, his domain of operation. Sometimes it'll be a particular area of gifting or talent. Whether it's in the area of music, or scientific research, or business or some other aspect of life. God gives you a heart and a desire to work in that and to claim that for the rule and the goodness and the glory of Jesus Christ. Sometimes your domain involves the connections that you have, the people that you know, your family members, your children, your spouse, and you have a gift of Christ's life in you to bring joy and blessing to them. 

And when you do, something happens in you that really can't happen in any other way. You feel like you're coming alive. You feel like you're really yourself for the first time. You sense that no, I don't think I was put on the earth just to play video games and watch TV. You know, I can do that now in them to relax a little bit. But I don't think that's my main purpose for being on the planet. And so it's important to find out what really makes you come alive. What is the domain that God has given you and it may not always be the same thing. The domain can keep expanding, as he gives you more relationships, whether through family or the friendships that you form. As he calls you into different avenues and opportunities for ministry. As he calls you into particular areas where you can really work for Christ. And as that happens you sense Christ at work in you and as the domain expands so well the weight, the burdens and the difficulties. There is nothing worth doing, that is not hard in this world. There is nothing worth doing that it's not hard, and we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength. Well that's the last point so I'm not gonna do that anymore. 

The third thing I want to say from this passage is his mind is your mind. Paul’s calling was to make the Word of God fully known. The mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to His saints. I mentioned an old age that was passing and a new and that had arrived. The age of the reign of the Messiah. And Paul says this was something that had been hidden for a very, very long time. And now through Paul through the other apostles, and in Jesus Christ, God was revealing the secret. He was showing the mystery. It was not to remain a mystery anymore, what God had been planning and reserving and was going to do. he was going to reveal Christ in us the hope of glory, to Gentiles as well as Jews. And so my point here as Paul talks about a mystery hidden but now revealed to His saints, revealed to Paul but also to the rest of the saints, to all of God's people. It is the fact that you now know God's secret. You know, what God's secret plan has always been. And what the mystery that was hid for a very long time that the prophets hinted at, that they were hoping to see more of, you know what that is, and you have had it revealed to you. Paul says in first Corinthians two, we impart a hidden and secret wisdom of God which God decreed before the ages for our glory. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it entered the heart of man to imagine what God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. Nobody could have guessed it, nobody could have thunk it. And God revealed it by His Spirit, and we have the mind of Christ.

He had this great plan and he put into us the receiver. He sent out the signal and He put into us what can receive that signal. Each of us when we have Christ in us, in a sense, have a transmitter and a receiver. We can transmit the mind of Christ as Paul did when he was sharing the gospel. And when the Holy Spirit is working in you, he's giving you a receiver and ears to hear the gospel and to receive it and that's why Christ in you is so important. It's one of the reasons that you have his mind. You can receive what he's thinking and without Christ in you it's really hard to make any sense of what Christ is saying outside of you by those who are trying to communicate the gospel. It's when Christ works in you and gives you ears to hear and heart to receive and when he's in there receiving and enlivening you, then your mind becomes his mind. It's a tremendous thing to think that all that you understand of God comes through him giving you in a sense the mind of Christ and working in your spirit by His Holy Spirit. But it's nothing less than that. The Bible makes it very clear that you cannot believe and trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior at all unless Christ is already at work and the Holy Spirit is already convicting you of sin and drawing you to him. His mind is your mind. 

So thus far we've seen that his suffering is your suffering. His mission is your mission. His mind is your mind. The next thing, Christ in you the hope of glory. His glory is your glory. To them God chose to make known that is to His saints. How great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Part of the greatness of this revelation is that Gentiles and not just Jews are gloriously rich. In Old Testament times, the people of Israel had been the main people to receive God's revelation and His blessing and His riches. But now God has fun opened the doors flung wide his arms and called Gentiles and most of us are Gentiles. Maybe there are a few here with some Jewish blood, but most of us are Gentiles. And it's a wonderful thing that God includes us. 

Another thing about this revelation is not just that Christ is with us, but that Christ is in us by His Holy Spirit. Another is that Christ doesn't just reign over us as Messiah, but he reigns through us and this is the beginning of his reign through us which continue forever and ever. The Bible promises that those were faithful with the few things that God gives us to rule now, whether it's five talents or 10 talents or one talent, or whatever it is that God makes you your domain, your realm of responsibility, your gifts and your treasures, whatever you're ruling on Christ's behalf now and doing it in his name, and for his sake, it keeps getting expanded, in this life and certainly in the life to come. To the one who has been given will be given more, says Jesus. And so Christ's co-reign in my domain now is just the first taste of the glory of reigning with Christ over a far greater domain in eternity. He gives us crowns as I've said, repeatedly. He gives us crowns to reign with Him, and our great joy is bringing those crowns and casting them at his feet. So his glory is your glory. Christ in you. Jesus Himself said the glory that you have given me, he was praying to His Father, the glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one as we are one I in them, and you Father in me. So this in-ness of Jesus in us and the glory that comes with that is something Jesus prayed for and promised before he went to heaven. 

In Ephesians, three, Paul prays that we will be strengthened with power through God's Spirit in the inner being so that Christ will dwell in our hearts through faith. I no longer live but Christ lives in me. Those kinds of things are stated again and again, throughout the Bible. The reality of Christ in you, Christ in me, the hope of glory. Ephesians three, just a little bit before that prayer, Paul says to me, though, at the very least of all the saints this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone, what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things. So, there you have that mystery that's revealed or you have the mind of Christ. So that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. That's quite a statement. Those are big words. Maybe they didn't get it the first time. The manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places, and God does that through the church. In other words, he creates the church's body as a display of how smart he is to the angels and he intends to amaze and impress and awe the angels by what he does through his church together and through each individual member of his body. 

What's that mean? Well, here's one way that I tried to summarize it. Jesus is so richly glorious, that he can't be fully expressed in any one of us. We’re too small for that purpose. But millions of believers can display different facets of Jesus glory and of his reign and of his personality and of His wonder. Different believers can also taste different facets of God's love. That's why in the same chapter of the Bible, Paul prays that together with all the saints, you'll grasp how wide, long and deep is the love of Christ. Because many of us have had slightly different experiences of God's love coming to us in the way he showed his faithfulness to us. And as we share that together, we know more of God's love than we could know if all we knew was his love expressed toward me as an individual. So we can display different aspects of God's glory and we receive different aspects of his glory and His love to share with others. 

Now, it's no different Christ. It's not like there are a million different Christ or several million. There is one Christ, the same Christ who lives in all of us and reigns in all of us by the same spirit. And yet this one Christ displays himself somewhat differently in different personalities who have a heart for different domains, and whose personal glory. Their own unique glory is to display an aspect of Christ's glory that's not found in any other human. You have been created to do something and to be somebody that nobody else was created to do or to be. And the life of Christ in you comes out in a way different than it comes out in any other person God created and redeemed. And one of the great tasks of your life is in prayer, and discernment, to seek out what your domain is what the Lord has put in your heart, what Christ is up to in you, and what he wants to be and to show through you. And to realize that what you have is a unique and glorious thing, and what others who have Christ in them is also unique and glorious. And so to glory in them by glorying in them to glory in Christ. This is what it means to be the church, nothing less. 

His life is your life. And so sometimes a life begins small. It begins, it's just a tiny little embryo at first and begins to grow and develop and is born and grows more and develops more. But no matter what stage of development we're at, or what stage of maturity or how close we're moving toward our final perfection in maturity, it's his life that's in us that's bringing that about. Him we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. As a pastor, that's the only reason that I have for being a pastor. As a church that is the only reason we have for existing, to proclaim Christ and to form Christ in people. Anything else is a waste and is getting us off mission. That's it. To proclaim Christ and to form Christ in people and in the various circumstances of our lives to help each other understand what Christ is doing in us, and what Christ is doing through us. And that is why the church exists. When it stops doing that it stops being a church. His life is our life. 

Paul speaks when he's kind of upset with the Galatians he says, Man, you Galatians, what am I going to do with you? It's like I'm in labor until Christ is formed in you. In Ephesians he talks about until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So how do we move toward maturity? Well, in the text, it says, sometimes it takes warnings. There's stuff then you say, well, that's either very immature, or that's not in keeping with the life of Christ at all. You're acting like you don't have Christ in you. And I'm not saying you don't, but you're acting like the flesh is in charge here or something. That's the nature of the warnings, and we're gonna see some of those warnings as we continue in Colossians. But the purpose of the warnings is not just to make them feel guilty or to tell them to try harder, but to say Christ is in you. Christ is in you. His life is your life. Get in touch with that life again, and realize that what is not of his life is not the real you, and it was not meant to continue. So there's a warning aspect in realizing that his life is our life. 

And of course, there's a teaching everyone with all wisdom. to say, Okay, I know this life of Christ is real in me and in you, but it needs to grow in me. It needs to grow and develop and mature in you. And that doesn't just happen through magic or through snapping a finger. God may bring about some of that growth very directly. But he often uses means to do it for the teaching of one another in all wisdom. And so there's the warning aspect, but also just the building up, that the feeding of that inner Christ. The growing and developing of Christ living in you. And the goal is to present everyone to be mature or perfect in Christ. That's not just the job of apostles or of pastors. Paul is speaking in our passage for today about what he's doing. He's warning, he's teaching so they'll get mature. But if you move a few chapters further into Colossians, he says something almost the same except now we're supposed to do it for each other, not just him for us. 

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Christ in you, His Word is mine. Let that dwell in you, nurture it, each day in His Word. Practice the disciplines that help you to grow and mature in Christ. Let his work dwell in you richly. And then be teaching and admonishing. Same basic words teaching and warning one another in all wisdom. So it's now not just something that apostle does to listeners, or preacher does for listeners. It is something that all God's people do for each other. Teaching and admonishing one another. This was by the way, the text that kind of started family of faith in a sense. It was the text we looked at in one of our very first hymn sings and this goes on to say teaching one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. You  know, Bible reciting and hymns and songs sung together. That's kind of a basic thing. But it's not just those practices. It is Christ in you communicating with Christ in another. 

So basically what is going on is Christ living in one believer proclaims the living Christ who lives in heaven to Christ living in another believer to produce full grown life of Christ. I don't know what I can say to explain that, but do think about it. Christ living in one proclaims Christ, the living Christ to Christ living in others and this helps us to grow and develop more fully the life of Christ that's in us. His life is our life. If Christ is in you, his life, of course is our life in terms of our eternal destiny too. And we read this again this week in Romans chapter eight. If Christ is in you although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. His life is your life. He lives in you and because he lives you also will live and live forever. 

Finally, his energy is your energy. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. Paul had a huge, huge stewardship or commission or domain to carry this gospel throughout the Roman Empire, and to plant churches in the face ferocious opposition. But when you do Christ's work in your assigned domain, you're not doing it on your own. You are energized by Jesus Christ Himself. And as Paul put it, he's able to do far more abundantly than all we can think according to the power at work within us. And so when you're called to this domain and you have this mind and you have this life, don't forget that you have a stupendous source of power and of energy. You don't just tap into that energy, however, by saying, Lord, I would really like to have a ton of power in my life. Sometimes the calling comes first, and the suffering and the trials come first and then God says My grace is sufficient for you. You'll get it when you need it. But just to say, I want an experience of God, and I want to feel his power coursing through my being that might happen. It's not likely to happen if you're not pursuing his mission and eager to build up his body and advance his kingdom. So his energy is your energy and you can count on that when you're doing his work. 

Christ in you. His suffering is your suffering. The fact is that as each of these increases, I believe that they kind of increased together. When he gives you a great mission it will usually involve enormous challenges and difficulties and sufferings. The more people that you work with, the more headaches you will have that go with working with people. Okay, the more you are on the front line of fight against Satan, the more Satan will fire back. If you're taking no shots, you're probably not on the front line. As your mind grows in him and as your glory grows in him and as your mission grows, your domain gets bigger, so does the weight you must bear and therefore it is a good thing that his life is your life and that his energy is your energy. Because as the burdens and sufferings grow, so too, does the energy. I've talked to the beginning about the kinds of sufferings and challenges that people like Hudson Taylor, or the Apostle Paul or David Livingstone endured. But think of the scope of what God did in them. There are 10s of millions of people in Africa who believe in the Lord today because the pioneering missionaries dared to go there. There are an estimated 130 million Christians in China. When Hudson Taylor started, there were hardly any. And these are enormous things that God has done and it's certain wasn't done just by any one of these people that I've mentioned. But the sufferings they went through was kind of a measure of what God was going to make happen through the lives that they lived and the mission that they carried out. 

So if you want to really count for Christ, if you want Christ in you in a big way, and raining through you in a big way, don't be surprised if something hard happens. I remember when within a month of me going into the ministry, Wendy was in hospital, and then the babies were in a hospital and then one of them was dead. That's how my ministry started. The week Jim was ordained two loved ones were in hospital within three days. You think that's an accident? Well, we live in the energy and power of Christ. Another great missionary the apostle to Ireland as he sometimes called the St. Patrick, he was kidnapped by pirates made a slave in Ireland. And after he managed to escape and get back to Britain, the Lord gave him a call to go back to Ireland again. And his mission helped many there to become Christians. And I want to close with what's sometimes called St. Patrick's breastplate. Just a few excerpts from a longer prayer that's attributed to St. Patrick. I rise today with the power of God to pilot me. God's strength to sustain me. God's wisdom to guide me. God's eye to look ahead for me. God's ear to hear me. God's word to speak for me. God's hand to protect me. God's way before me. God's shield to defend me, God's host to deliver me. Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ to the right of me, Christ to the left of me, Christ in my lying down Christ, in my sitting, Christ in my rising, Christ in the heart of all them who think of me, Christ on the tongue of all who speak to me, Christ in the eye, of all who see me, Christ in the ear, of all who hear me. Do you hear me? 

Lord, we thank you for Christ in us for the hope of glory. We thank you that the Christ in each of us can bring blessing to one another through the work of Your Holy Spirit. And we pray, Lord, that as you live in us, you will continue to lift our hearts to your heavenly throne where you Christ are embodied and reigning. And also to know right within our hearts is your temple where you reign by your Holy Spirit. And so Lord bless us as one body in Christ. Give us Lord, joy in the sufferings of Christ. Give us Lord, the mission of Christ and the mind of Christ and the life of Christ and the energy of Christ and all that Christ is and does. Lord help us never to be diverted from who we are and who you've called us to be, but to have as our only mission to display and proclaim Christ and to grow mature and perfect in Him for Jesus sake. Amen.