The Importance of Passing on Life

Recording:

1 Today's topic: Passing on Life!
Today we will speak about Passing on Life. Life is meant to be passed on. It is foolish not to pass it on. None of us is born knowing everything, understanding everything. We learn from others. Since it is learned, it is passed on. Some say, one learns until old age. That means even in old age, one still needs to pass on. We often say, there is always a higher mountain, there is always someone better. There is always something we can learn, someone we can emulate. How important is passing on? It is very important. What you pass on is what you will live out. If you pass on weakness, you will live out weakness. If you pass on strength, you will live out strength. If you pass on the death of Jesus, you will receive the great power of Jesus' resurrection from the dead. If you truly pass on the death of Jesus, there will be no unsolvable problem in your life!
These past few weeks, we have mentioned a concept. That is middle-aged and elderly women. We have quite a few middle-aged and elderly women among us. So when we talk about middle-aged and elderly women, please do not take it personally. Why did Paul criticize these middle-aged and elderly women? Because they often hear the Word but do not pass it on. They hear, but pass on nothing. They are never able to understand the truth. They still hold on to their old accumulated ideas. Those ideas that lead them to death, they carry with the death of Jesus, refusing to let go even in death. Those things that would give them life, they refuse to accept even in death. They are not carrying the death of Jesus, they are carrying the death of the devil, a death upon death! The emanating poison is the poison of death. This is what Paul said. Thank God, our middle-aged and elderly women are all elite soldiers of God's Kingdom, and they have passed on what we want them to pass on. My heart's desire is that all of us, no matter how old you are, are elite soldiers of God.
The day before yesterday, at the fast and prayer meeting, my mother, an old lady in her eighties, in the video, I saw her vigorously waving her hand, making a powerful gesture, praying there like a young person! I am very grateful, this is not what I did, this is what the Lord Jesus did. Who can change this old lady? She had smoked for more than 60 years, played mahjong for 50 years, how could she be changed? But God can change her. These bad habits were changed one by one by the Lord Jesus, and not only that, but she also became an elite soldier of Jesus Christ. Then she is no longer the middle-aged and elderly woman Paul criticized. I tell you, my mother is really remarkable, although she still has some worldly things to get rid of, but the old lady is over eighty years old, and she is still learning to use the computer. Some time ago, she told me, I must learn to use the computer. She opened the computer herself, logged on to QQ, and made video calls with us, and participated in the prayer meeting in the video. How amazing! Ordinary elderly people cannot compare with her. We saw it, and we were all very moved. Even in old age, she is still passing on! This is the passing on of life. Everything that belongs to life, we must pass on. I think, my mother will have more and more of Jesus Christ in her, because she is humble, eager to learn, and willing to pass on.

The Power and Testimony of Passing On

Yesterday, a sister who had just believed in the Lord for a month had a swollen foot and even took a photo and posted it on WeChat. She came to the church to pray. She entered a room where two children were praying. One was an 11-year-old child, and the other was a 17-year-old child. These two children began to minister to her. They prayed and ministered to her there. The 11-year-old KR sister called and asked her mother how to minister, and the 17-year-old KX sister asked her cell group leader how to minister. When I saw it, I was very touched! They have all passed on the resurrection power of Jesus Christ! Do you know what happened? The swelling and pain in her foot later disappeared! Some children pass on the bad habits of their parents, but the children among us, even the young ones, are passing on the life power of Jesus Christ! If children can minister to adults in this way, think about how abundant this child's future will be! However, I may have done something wrong, I should have let them continue to minister. When I saw it, I asked the sister to find Heidi next door to minister. Actually, her foot was basically healed. Why can these children do what many adults cannot do? It is because they are willing to pass on what we have passed on to them!
Whether old or young, we must know that what we need is the passing on of life. What we pass on is not death, but resurrection! We not only pass on the things of life from above, but we also pass on these things of life downward! Our life is a life of passing on. What we pass on is life itself!
Let us read today's scripture. It is still 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Do you remember the scripture from last Sunday?

2 Today's scripture: 1 Corinthians 4:14-16
1Co 4:14 I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. 1Co 4:15 For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. 1Co 4:16 Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.

3 Prayer – A prayer to pass on life!
(Impromptu prayer)! Pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen!

4 Passing on is key to life, not passing on is foolish!
If a person is born and is taken away by a wolf. Strangely enough, the wolf did not eat the child, but instead took it into the deep mountains and forests and raised it. Later, it became a wolf child. The wolf child learned from the wolves from a young age and imitated them. As a result, although it had human intelligence, it did not live out the human likeness. If a person starts learning everything from direct experience from birth, without passing on anything. Starting from learning to make fire by drilling wood, accumulating experience, by the time they die, they have not yet come out of the Stone Age. If you see someone living in the Stone Age, smashing coconuts with a stone, you will feel it is very foolish. That is to say, human knowledge is basically passed down from our ancestors. If someone does not pass on anything, and starts everything from scratch, it is a very foolish act.
There is a concept, which is the relationship between direct experience and indirect experience. Direct experience is the experience you gain through your own practice. Indirect experience is the experience you gain through learning from other people's experiences. In fact, most of our experiences are indirect. For example, the knowledge we learn in middle school and even university today is the result of previous research. You don't need to study it all over again from scratch.

Passing on and accumulating wisdom

I am against making decisions by patting your head and relying on intuition. I don't think that's reliable. Everything must be reliable. If there is no reliability, it is a mess. Why? Because we need to understand existing knowledge. Only when we understand what exists, do we have the qualifications to develop further. In fact, I have tried it. When I have a creative idea, I search online and find that someone has already done it. There is really nothing new under the sun. Even if we exhaust our entire lives, we may not be able to learn all the knowledge in the world. If we do not learn and rely on ourselves to dig from scratch, it is a very foolish act. Therefore, the ancients said: If you don't read for a day, dust will grow in it; if you don't read for two days, your words will be dull; if you don't read for three days, your face will be repulsive.
When people live, passing on is the key! Write it down in your notes: Passing on is the key.
There is a brother among us who told me a few days ago, Pastor, if I had met you earlier, it would have been great. I know what he means. He used to make decisions by patting his head, with little examination. He didn't know what to do. His learning methods were not reliable either. So he took a lot of detours. After meeting me, I shared everything I had with him as much as possible. He gained a lot. Take finding a job as an example. If I hadn't taught him, how could he have interviewed nearly fifty times and gotten 4-5 job offers? If he had to study it himself, I think, he might not have found a job even after passing the age for finding a job.
Last week, a sister was baptized on April 18th. Afterwards, we prayed for her and drove out the spirit of the zombie from her, and her neck and back were all relaxed. Many years of illness were healed. Last week, she began to receive many interview opportunities. Before the interview, she came to me, and I gave her a systematic training. After understanding the key interview skills, she went to the interview and was not as nervous as before. After the interview, she told me, Pastor, my interview went well. I wasn't nervous at all. She passed on the research results I have done for many years. Of course she wasn't nervous. If she had to look up the information herself and go through the research process that I have gone through, first of all, she might not be able to study it as thoroughly as I have, and even if she could study it as thoroughly, I think it would take several years. Of course, I didn't start researching from scratch either. I digested and understood all the information I could find, added my insights, and summarized it. Without passing on, no one can go far.
Brothers and sisters, passing on is key to life!
Someone asked me, how many years of work experience do you have? I said, I have 3500 years! Why? Because we have studied many things from the past 3500 years. In fact, don't be fooled by the word experience. What is experience? It is the ability to solve problems. The more problems you solve, the more experience you have. The fewer problems you solve, the less experience you have. It's not that working there for ten years is equal to ten years of experience. Some people's one year of work is equivalent to another person's ten years!

The Mentality and Responsibility of Passing on Life

How many years of experience did our Lord Jesus have? He lived on earth for thirty-three years. Crucified. Resurrected from the dead. Proved Himself to be the eternal God with great power! Of course, His experience is infinitely great. Therefore, when many people left the Lord Jesus, He asked His disciples, Do you also want to go away? The disciples said, No, we follow you, because you have the words of eternal life! The Lord Jesus has infinite experience. When we follow Him, do we not also gain infinite experience? Once, I encountered a technical problem in an engineering project. I worked on it for two months without any progress. There was no sign of a solution. My wife then said, Have you prayed? I said, No. Yes, why didn't I pray? After I prayed, the Lord Jesus gave me a revelation, and the problem was solved in two days. It turns out that the Lord Jesus is very powerful. Engineering technology is definitely not a problem for the Lord Jesus. He is the best engineer in the world. The Bible says so too. A few days ago, our Sister XY's computer would not start, so she laid hands on the computer and prayed, and the computer was miraculously fixed. But this really requires faith to receive what I am saying. But you need to know that this is a real experience.
Therefore, I say that if knowledge needs to be passed on, and life is at a higher level than knowledge, shouldn't it be passed on even more? A few days ago, I met a fool, and I said this, but he said something foolish that choked me. He said, You can't lower the things of life to this level. I was speechless at the time. Brothers and sisters, know for sure that if lower-level things need to be passed on, shouldn't higher-level things be passed on even more?
The transmission of knowledge depends on a master. So how is life passed on? The transmission of life depends on the heart of a father and mother and the heart for children.

5. Passing on knowledge requires the mentality of a master, but passing on life requires the mentality of a father and mother
   Though you have countless instructors, you do not have many fathers. How well said. We can have many teachers and masters to learn knowledge, but to obtain the inheritance of life, what is needed is the heart of a father and mother, and that we ourselves have the heart of a child.
   My parents were both very smart people. But because they didn't have the opportunity to go to school, they squatted outside the window of the school classroom to listen. How envious they were of those who could go to study. Later, we had five children. My father often said that no matter what, you must study hard. Once, I skipped school to play with a group of bad kids in the compound. When I returned home, my father took out his belt and made me lie down. I will never forget that. The belt slapped on my behind. Later, someone asked me how I learned so well. I thought about it, because my father's belt immediately whipped me into Beihang University! I am grateful. If I had a father who spoiled his children, a father who didn't think about my well-being, maybe I would have become one of those bad kids in our compound. At our age, some are still in jail, and some have already died.
   Although my father passed away four years ago, I have always been very grateful in my heart. I said that although my father had no culture or learning, he had the heart of a father. When I was a child, he fulfilled his father's responsibility for my life. What a teacher or master can do is not to whip me with a belt, but to tell my father. Therefore, Singapore's education system is a master system. The Ministry of Education constantly warns teachers that you are masters, and the role of the father needs to be played by the student's father. I think this is the right thing to do. The father's responsibility should not be pushed onto the teacher.
   However, the church is different. The church is a place to pass on life. Without serving with the heart of a father and mother, life cannot be built up! This is what Paul said, Imitate me. Imitate him serving the church of that generation with the heart of a father and mother.

The Power of Imitation and Transmission

Brothers and sisters, the transmission of knowledge requires a master, but the transmission of life requires a father. Write this sentence down!
Knowledge cannot replace life, although a part of life is knowledge. This is easy to explain. Human knowledge is increasing, but problems are also increasing. Knowledge has not solved the problems of our lives. This is obvious. Therefore, what we need is not a master, but a father. This is also why we call our God Heavenly Father. Because our life depends on Him.
Even today, I received an inquiry. Perhaps because he has a professional preference for teachers, he likes to understand things. But I am an engineer by training, so I have a slightly different view.
God created Adam and Eve and warned them not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but to eat the fruit of the tree of life. For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. But they ate it anyway. What did people bring by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge? Life was lost. From a living being with a spirit to a spiritually dead person. There are so many problems in the world today because people ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge.
After eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, people understand before they do. In fact, the things of life are understood after they are done.

6. Imitation is transmission, not understanding before doing, but understanding after doing (imitating)!
   Why does Paul want us to imitate him? Because for the things of life, imitation is the most effective. The Lord Jesus wants us to imitate Himself. I think we humans have too many questions that cannot actually get rigorous answers from logical reasoning. Because our minds are too small. Our brains cannot hold or understand. The Bible tells us that obvious things belong to us, but mysteries belong to our God.
   I met someone who often asked me questions that I didn't even want to ask. Why don't I ask them anymore? Because asking them doesn't solve any problems. He asked me, How did God create the universe? Where was God creating when the universe didn't exist? Who created God who created man? He only asked such questions. It does not build up life or solve problems.
   Many things are obvious. Do we really know how a child grows in the mother's womb? We don't know. Even doctors can't explain it clearly. Cell division, why do some cells divide into hearts, some into bones, and some into eyes? Humans don't know. Although they don't know, haven't humans reproduced for thousands of years? It is not understanding before doing, but understanding after doing.
   If humans waited until they understood before doing, I don't think you and I would be here today. If humans waited until they understood that water is H2O, I think they would all die of thirst.
   It turns out that with things that belong to life, it is not understanding before doing, but understanding after doing. Brothers and sisters, you have performed so many miracles, do you really understand the chemical and physical principles? When we pray in tongues, do we really understand what praying in tongues is all about? Many things cannot be explained clearly. The Bible does not clearly explain what praying in tongues is all about. But when we imitate, we gain power!
   Brothers and sisters, we must come out of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. We need to learn a key concept: imitation.
   Even though I say this, some people still like to take the path of speculation. I sincerely advise you not to take the path of speculation, but to take the path of imitation. I am a person who takes the path of imitation. I imitate Paul and serve with the heart of a father and mother, and I see the effect of serving. Hebrews 13:7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
   Transmission is the most effective. Seeing the outcome of their way of life, we imitate them.

Summary of Imitation and Life Transmission

Because Sister KR and Sister KX imitate us, even though they are still children, they can actually serve adults.

7. Summary: The transmission of life is imitation!
   1 Corinthians 4:14 I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children. 1 Corinthians 4:15 Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 1 Corinthians 4:16 Therefore I urge you to imitate me.