The Kingdom of God Is Not About Eating and Drinking

Among Christians, one of the most deadly concepts is that of service. I am a rather conversational person, and once I met a Christian. I asked him if he had faith in the Lord, and he said he did. I asked him if his faith in the Lord was good, and he said it was quite good. I asked him if it was good in the church, and he said it was quite good.

I asked him what he served, and he said he was in charge of cooking. I asked him how many years he had been doing it, and he said five years. I asked him if he had read the Bible, and he said he had not. I was very surprised that he had been cooking for five years but had never read the word of God.

Today, in our generation, there are all kinds of strange services, and many churches have invented all kinds of services. But what kind of service is cooking? In fact, in the early years when the church began to be established, the Jerusalem church established by Peter was all about eating and drinking.

Some people ate more, some ate less, and some did not eat at all, and as a result, conflicts began to arise. Then Peter came up with a solution. He selected seven deacons and established a deacon committee. The work of the deacons was mainly to manage the food, but they did not manage it well.

In Paul's time, the church still retained the tradition of eating and drinking. Eating and drinking are very interesting things. Everyone likes to eat and drink, but someone needs to cook. Later, Paul said in his letters that the kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking. If you want to eat, eat your fill at home, and do not eat in the church.

Later, I also discovered that eating and drinking is a very strange thing, because in the early years when I established the church, I bought a lot of roast chicken, roast duck, ham, and cooked dishes, all of which were very delicious. At that time, I thought this was called serving.

But later I discovered in the Bible that this was not right. This is not how the church is established in the Bible. At that time, I thought that the church could not be established without these things, and no one would come to the church. As a result, the food attracted all the foodies. Later, I gradually changed, and there was no more eating and drinking, no more fruit, and no more water. If you want to buy water, you have to insert a one-dollar coin.

The church is a place to train people to give, not a place to eat and drink. Cooking and drinking cannot edify people, so from today onwards, we must change the way we believe in the Lord. The way we believe in the Lord must conform to the Bible. The kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking, but about peace and power in the Holy Spirit. Reading the word of God is important, not eating and drinking. Later, the church gradually changed, and the brothers and sisters also began to give, praying a lot and constantly changing.

If one day I ask you to cook every week, you should tell me: Forget it! You once told me that cooking is not a service. Once, I saw a sister who liked to cook for others, and I criticized her: What are you doing all this for, wasting time.

Worship and Praise Is Not Very Important

The misconception of service in the church is not just this one. The second misconception is worship and praise. Basically, every church has a worship and praise team, singing hymns with microphones, and also playing drums and pianos. Now we don't have them in our church. At that time, I didn't know what the Bible said, but I thought it was very good. Other churches were doing it, so we did it too.

The equipment I bought was also very advanced, but later I discovered that many problems were in worship and praise. The person leading the hymns on the stage actually had average ability, but he was very good at posing, pointing his finger, very imposing.

Some sisters saw it and commented that the person's movements were very beautiful and his singing was very good, so they admired him very much. But I did not find in the Bible how to manage a worship and praise team. Where did worship and praise originate from? I don't know when the church started holding concerts.

Hymns are very beautiful and very moving, but they are not very important. So later I gradually eliminated worship and praise. Even if I eliminated it, it did not affect the church. I also reflect on what I spent so much effort doing these things for. Without worship and praise, the church seems a bit wrong, but it takes a lot of effort.

Once I said some rather sarcastic words: How come I have never seen Jesus Christ with a group of worship and praise team? If the worship and praise team is so important, Jesus Christ should lead the worship and praise team, responsible for the main mic, the secondary mic, right? But Jesus did not.

Later I studied the Apostle Paul, and he did not lead a worship and praise team either. Some people say that he could not afford it in that era, but if this matter is very important, I think Jesus would definitely teach it. For example: Do you love me? Lord, I love you! Then you put together a worship and praise team. However, the Bible does not say that. What Jesus and Peter said was:

Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.(John 21:15-17 )

Until today, some people come among us and ask me if they can join the worship and praise team? Can I join the hospitality team? What kind of service can I participate in? Is there a cooking team? Can I join the prayer team? My answer is, we don't have these.

He looked at me, he was very confused, he asked, what can he serve in the church? I am also very confused, I don't know what I can let him serve in the church. Because I have never seen Jesus Christ wearing big flowered pants and holding a big flowered fan to dance there. I only saw Jesus Christ doing two things: teaching, training disciples and healing and casting out demons.

Later, I woke up. We should try not to do what Jesus does not do; we should do well what Jesus does. This is very important. This is about the growth of each of us, that is, we must focus on doing things. We believe in Jesus, not in singers. We do not believe in today's church, we believe in Jesus. We do what Jesus does and focus on doing it.

Some people say that it is good to have worship and praise. Although it is very good, it is distracting. If you are not focused, you will not be very successful, so worship and praise is a very deadly thing. If you rehearse a program, you need to invest a lot of time, and it is easy to make a lot of jokes, awkwardness and contradictions because of the rehearsal of the program.

Do Not Be Someone Who Asks Others to Pray for Them

The third misconception in ministry is intercessory prayer, which causes no small amount of trouble. I have spoken before about the fallacy of intercessory prayer. A sister who was ill sought Christians everywhere to pray for her. The other party was very polite and said they would pray for her. However, I have not found any precedent for intercessory prayer in the 《Bible》.

Some say Paul did, as he asked others to pray for him. I am also puzzled: Why did Paul need them to pray for him? It was because Paul needed them to share the same burden as him, so that those praying would have the same vision and dreams as Paul, not for Paul's own sake.

Often, we misuse intercessory prayer. There is a patient who is not present, and the intercessory prayer team prays for him behind his back every day, but the patient's condition does not improve. This is not recorded in the 《Bible》; it is unreliable for us to fabricate such things.

One day, a brother came to me and asked what he could do in our church. He said that in his previous church, he was an intercessor and could pray for me from behind. I said: Our entire church is a team of prayer warriors, and I myself am a person of prayer. I do not particularly need intercessory prayer.

We have many prayer meetings in our church; I lead several times each week. The ministry of intercessory prayer is strange. We think intercessory prayer is a very important ministry, but I think it is important for everyone to rise up and pray. Therefore, we must be people of prayer and not be someone who asks others to pray for them. Prayer cannot be outsourced.

If a priest sits in a rocking chair with his feet up, outsourcing the offering of sacrifices and letting others do it, do you think God will accept it? Sacrifices cannot be outsourced either. If it can be outsourced, we might as well outsource everything. We do not have the ministry of intercessory prayer; what we have are prayer meetings, which everyone can attend.

What is true ministry? It is important to clarify this matter. If we do not know, we cannot proceed on the road ahead. True ministry is God's will: to set the captives free and to liberate the oppressed. True ministry is to be like Jesus.

There are two aspects to setting people free: first, the word of God; second, casting out demons. Therefore, in the process of our ministry, each of us must become preachers, each of us must become ministers, each of us must become shepherds, and each of us must directly participate in ministry like Jesus. That is what is important. Like Jesus, uniting with brothers and sisters, fighting together to overcome, trampling on the powers of darkness, and building God's glorious church—that is the most crucial thing!

I will not outsource these things to our brothers and sisters; instead, we will build together. This is how we resolve the misconception of ministry.