Spreading the Gospel Is the Duty to Which All Believers Are Honor-Bound (Part Two)
I have heard that some of those who spread the gospel do not have any love at all in their hearts. While dealing with the notions and questions of those who are investigating the true way, these spreaders of the gospel engage in fellowship multiple times. But when those people still do not understand and keep asking questions over and over again, these spreaders of the gospel can no longer bear it and start to lecture them. “You ask too many questions. You don’t understand the truth no matter how much I fellowship with you. Your caliber is too low, you don’t have the comprehension ability, and you can’t gain the truth and life. You are all laborers.” Some people cannot bear to hear such words and become negative for a while. People differ from one to another. Some people see that God’s words are the truth when they investigate the true way. Even if they have some notions and problems, these are solved while they read God’s words. These people are so pure that they can easily accept the truth. They read God’s words by themselves, seek, and investigate, and then when someone fellowships with them, they willingly accept the true way and join the church. But other people have a lot of questions. They have to investigate until they find clarity in all respects. If there is just one point that they have not investigated until it is clear, they will not accept the true way. These people are careful and cautious in everything they do. Some of those who spread the gospel do not have any love in their hearts for such people. What is their attitude? “You can believe it or not! You will be no great loss to the house of God, nor will you be any great gain. If you don’t believe, just leave! How do you have so many questions? These have all been answered for you already.” In fact, these spreaders of the gospel do not answer the questions raised by these potential recipients of the gospel clearly, they do not fellowship on the truth clearly, they do not completely dispel the doubts in these people’s hearts, but they want them to abandon their notions and accept the gospel as quickly as possible. Is this something people can be forced to do even if they are unwilling? If someone says truthfully that they don’t understand, then you should read a few passages from God’s words to them concerning their problems and notions, and then fellowship on the truth to enable them to understand. Some potential gospel recipients like to get to the root of things. People like this want to find out everything. They aren’t making things difficult for you, they aren’t nitpicking or finding fault, they just take things seriously. When encountering such serious people, some of those who spread the gospel can’t answer them and feel that they have made a fool of themselves. Consequently, they do not want to fellowship with such people, saying, “I’ve been spreading the gospel for so many years, but I’ve never had such a thorn in my side!” These spreaders of the gospel call such people thorns in their side. In fact, these spreaders of the gospel have only half an understanding of any aspect of the truth, they speak about some grand doctrines and empty words and try to get people to accept them as the truth. Is this not making things hard for others? If others don’t understand and ask detailed questions, they are not happy, and say, “I’ve explained the three stages of God’s work to you, and I’ve explained them clearly. If you still can’t understand after I have said so much, you should read God’s words yourself to resolve your notions. The word of God is sitting right there. If you read and understand it, then believe. If you can’t understand it, then don’t believe!” After hearing this, the potential gospel recipients think, “If I continue to ask questions, I may lose out on my chance to be saved and not be able to receive blessings. I won’t ask questions then, I’ll just quickly go along with him and believe!” Afterward, these people keep attending gatherings and listen to sermons attentively, and they gradually come to understand some truths and gradually resolve their notions. Regardless of how their belief is going now, is this an appropriate way to spread the gospel? Can it be said that these spreaders of the gospel have fulfilled their responsibility? (It cannot.) In spreading the gospel, you must first fulfill your responsibility. You must follow your conscience and reason in doing all that you can and all that you ought. You must lovingly provide solutions to whatever notions the person investigating the true way may have or whatever questions they raise. If you really cannot provide a solution, you can find a few relevant passages of God’s words to read to them, or relevant clips about experiential testimony, or some relevant gospel testimony films to show them. It is entirely possible that this will be effective; at the very least you will be fulfilling your responsibility, and won’t feel accused by your conscience. But if you are perfunctory and muddle your way through, you are liable to delay things, and it will not be easy to win over that person. In spreading the gospel to others, one must fulfill their responsibility. How should the word “responsibility” be understood? How, precisely, should it be put into practice and applied? Well, you should understand that having welcomed the Lord and experienced God’s work in the last days, you have an obligation to bear witness for His work to those who thirst for His appearance. So, how are you to spread the gospel to them? Whether online or in real life, you should spread it in whatever way wins over people and is effective. Gospel-spreading is not something you do when you feel like it, something you do when you are in a good mood and do not do when you are not. Neither is it something done according to your preferences, with you deciding who receives preferential treatment, spreading the gospel to those you like and not spreading it to those you do not. The gospel should be spread according to God’s demands and to the principles of His house. You should fulfill the responsibility and duty of a created being, doing all that you are capable of to testify to the truths you understand, to the words of God, and to the work of God to those investigating the true way. That is how you fulfill the responsibility and duty of a created being. What should a person do as they are spreading the gospel? They should fulfill their responsibility, do all they can, and be willing to pay every price. It is possible that you have been preaching the gospel for a short time, lack sufficient experience, are not very eloquent, and do not have a high level of education. In fact, these things are not of critical importance. The most important thing is that you choose suitable passages from the word of God and fellowship on truths that hit home and can solve problems. Your attitude must be sincere and enable you to touch people, so that no matter what you say, potential gospel recipients are all willing to listen to you, especially when you talk about your real experiences and speak from the heart. If you can make the potential recipients of the gospel like you so that they willingly associate with you, willingly fellowship with you, and willingly listen to your testimony, then that is a success. They will then treat you as a confidant, and willingly listen to everything you say, they will find all aspects of the truth you choose to fellowship on to be good and very practical, and be able to accept them all. In this way, you can easily win them over. This is the wisdom you must possess if you spread the gospel. If you cannot help people with a loving heart and you cannot be a confidant to others, you will find it too much of an effort to spread the gospel and win people over. Why is it that those who speak simply and openly, those who are straightforward and warm-hearted are so effective in spreading the gospel? It is because everyone likes gospel spreaders like this, and they are willing to interact and build friendships with them. If gospel spreaders like this understand the truth and fellowship on the truth in a particularly practical and clear manner, if they can patiently fellowship the truth with others, solve the various problems, difficulties, and perplexities that people have, brighten up their hearts, and bring great comfort to them, people will like and trust them in their hearts, take them as a confidant, and listen willingly to anything they say. If a gospel spreader always puts themselves on a pedestal and lectures others, treating them like children and students, people will likely see them as annoying and repulsive. Therefore, the wisdom you should possess to spread the gospel is this: First, make a good impression on others, speaking in a way that is agreeable to your listeners. After listening to you, they should be able to gain something from it, and receive some benefit. In this way, your spreading of the gospel will be smooth sailing, encounter no obstacles, and achieve fruitful results. Even though some people may not accept the gospel, they will see that you are a good person and willingly associate with you. Those who preach the gospel should be able to socialize with people. Making a wide range of friends is a good road to take. Additionally, there is still one thing of the utmost importance. No matter who you preach the gospel to, you must first do a lot of prep work. You must equip yourself with the truth, master principles, have the ability to discern people, and employ wise methods. You must persistently practice doing this prep work. First of all, in your conversations with people who are investigating, you must understand and grasp their backgrounds, what denominations they belong to, what their primary notions are, whether they are introverts or extroverts, how their comprehension abilities are, and how their characters are. This is the key thing. Once you have a firm grasp of potential gospel recipients in all respects, your preaching of the gospel will be much more effective, and you will know how to prescribe the right medicine to resolve their notions and problems. If you encounter temptations from evil people, atheists, or devils, you will be able to sense them, discern them for who they are, and hurriedly abandon them. Reading God’s words can reveal all kinds of people. Evil people and atheists will be repulsed when they hear them, and devils hate to listen to God’s words. Only those who thirst for the truth will be interested. They will seek the truth and ask questions. This is how you can confirm that they are potential gospel recipients. Once we confirm this, we can engage them in systematic fellowship on the truth. When fellowshipping on the truth, we can fully grasp the caliber of these potential gospel recipients, how well they can comprehend the truth, and the state of their characters. In this way, we will know which people to work on and how to fellowship on the truth. No matter how much effort we put in, it will not be in vain. In the process of spreading the gospel, if you do not understand and grasp the situation of the other party and do not prescribe the right medicine, it will not be easy to win over people. Even if you do happen to win over a few people, it will only be by chance. Those who understand the truth and see to the bottom of things are able to take fewer wrong turns when spreading the gospel or avoid taking them entirely. They preach to the people they should and do not preach to the people they should not. They make an accurate assessment before preaching and avoid doing useless work. In this way, they do their duty with greater efficiency and less wasted effort, achieving good results. So, if you want to spread the gospel effectively, equip yourself with the truth and do enough prep work. What if you meet a religious person who knows the Bible well, but you haven’t read the Bible? What can you do? At that time, it’s too late for you to equip yourself with the truth of the Bible, so you should quickly introduce them to a gospel spreader who understands the Bible. Give this person over to whoever understands the Bible. This is in line with the truth principles. If you try to blindly show off by preaching the gospel to them anyway, this person will not accept the gospel. This result will be caused by your irresponsibility. In addition, you have to find the time to equip yourself with some knowledge of the Bible when you are not working. Spreading the gospel without knowing anything about the Bible is not very workable. Many of the questions raised by investigators involve the words in the Bible. If you understand the Bible, you can use the truth of the Bible to resolve these questions. No matter what notions the potential gospel recipients hold, you can find the corresponding Bible verses and words of God to resolve their notions. The desired result can only be achieved in this way. Therefore, spreading the gospel requires some knowledge of the Bible. For example, you should know which prophecies in the Old Testament and which verses in the New Testament testify to God’s return and God’s work in the last days. You should read these words more, ponder them more, and keep them in your heart. In addition, you must understand how religious people understand these Bible verses, ponder how to fellowship so as to lead them to an accurate and pure understanding of these verses, and then incorporate these verses of the Bible to guide them to an understanding of God’s work in the last days. Is this doing your prep work? This is exactly what it means to do prep work. You have to understand the needs of the different kinds of people who investigate the true way, and then do some prep work according to the situation. Only then will you be able to do all that you can and fulfill your responsibilities. This is your responsibility. Some people will say, “I don’t need to do all that. I just need to read the Bible a few times. No matter who I spread the gospel to, I always say the same things. The words I use to preach the gospel are fixed and do not change. I will use these words and they can believe or not. The people that don’t believe won’t receive blessings. They can’t put that on me. After all, I’ve fulfilled my responsibility.” Did they fulfill their responsibility? What is the situation of the person investigating, what is their age, education level, marital status, hobbies, personality, humanity, family situation, and so on? You don’t know any of this, but you still go and preach to them. You have not done any prep work and made no effort at all. And you still claim to have fulfilled your responsibility? Isn’t this just fooling people? Treating your duty like this shows a perfunctory and irresponsible attitude. It is a cursory attitude. You preach the gospel with such an attitude and, when you don’t win someone over, you say, “If he doesn’t believe, that’s just his bad luck. Besides, he lacks spiritual understanding, so even if he did believe, he wouldn’t be able to gain the truth or be saved!” This is irresponsible. You are shirking your responsibility. You obviously didn’t do your prep work well. It is obvious that you didn’t fulfill your responsibility, that you didn’t do your duty loyally. And you still make excuses by giving all kinds of reasons, trying to shirk your responsibility with words. What kind of behavior is this? It’s called deception. To shirk your responsibility, you make judgments and draw conclusions about people and talk irresponsible nonsense. This is called arrogance and self-righteousness, insidiousness and viciousness. It is also called deception. It is trying to deceive God.
If God has entrusted to you the duty of spreading the gospel, you should accept God’s commission, deferentially and submissively. You should endeavor to treat every person who is investigating the true way with love and patience, and you should be able to bear hardship and toil. Be diligent in taking responsibility for sharing the gospel; provide clear fellowship about the truth, so that you may give account of it to God. This is the attitude with which one should perform their duty. If someone investigating the true way seeks the truth from you, and you brush them aside, are unable to earnestly fellowship about the truth to them and resolve their problem, and even find excuses, saying, “I’m not in the mood now. Whoever they are, however much they thirst for the truth or for God’s appearance and work, it’s not my business. It’s not on me whether they can believe. If the Holy Spirit doesn’t go to work, no matter how much prep work I do, it will be of no use—so I won’t make that effort! Anyway, I’ve already said all the truths I understand. Whether they can accept the true way, that’s God’s affair. It has nothing to do with me,” then what attitude is this? It is an irresponsible attitude, a hardened one. Are there not many who spread the gospel in this way? Can such gospel-spreading meet an adequate standard? Can it exalt God and bear witness to Him? No, not in the least. Such gospel-spreading is merely performing a bit of labor; it comes nowhere near the performance of a duty. So, how can one spread the gospel adequately? No matter who it is investigating the true way, you must first do prep work and equip yourself with the truth, then rely on love, patience, tolerance, and a sense of responsibility to perform this duty of yours well. Be unadulterated and do all you can and ought to do. Spreading the gospel in this way is adequate. If circumstances do not allow you to spread the gospel, or if the person investigating refuses to listen and leaves, this is not your fault. You have done what you should do, and your conscience will not accuse you. This means that you have fulfilled your responsibility. Some people may meet the principles for spreading the gospel, but the timing may not be right. It is not yet God’s time. In this case, the work of spreading the gospel must be set aside for the time being. Does setting aside the work mean that you do not spread the gospel to the person? It does not mean that you do not spread the gospel, only that you wait for the appropriate time to do so. What other people should not be preached to? For example, when a person speaks in tongues—not for a day or two, or even a year or two—but for a long time, and can speak this way at any time and in any place, this person is an evil spirit and the gospel cannot be spread to them. There are also people who appear to be good people on the outside, but upon inquiry and with further understanding, you discover that they have committed adultery with many people. If the gospel is spread to people such as these, it will cause much trouble. They will be likely to cause disturbance for God’s chosen people, so the gospel must not be preached to them. There are also some religious pastors who require too much effort to accept the truth. Even if they are willing to accept it, they still have conditions. They are only content to serve as leaders and workers. Most people of this sort are antichrists. According to the principles, the gospel should not be spread to them. Only if they are willing to labor by spreading the gospel and are able to bring in many others is it permitted to spread the gospel to people like this. If someone’s humanity is too evil, and you can tell that they are an evil person by their appearance alone, then this sort of person will never accept the truth and will never repent. Even if someone like this entered the church, they would be expelled, so the gospel should never be spread to them. Preaching to someone like this would be tantamount to bringing Satan, bringing a devil into the church. Another situation comes up when some minors are willing to believe in God. However, in some democratic countries, minors must obtain the consent of their guardians if they want to participate in church life and perform their duties. Do not ignore this requirement. It calls for a reasonable solution, and wisdom is needed. In China, as long as one of the parents leads such a minor to believe in God, there is no problem at all. If a young adult who is no longer a minor can comprehend the truth and wants to believe in God, but their parents oppose and limit them, the young adult can leave their family and come to the church to believe in and follow God free from the restrictions and obstacles of their parents. This is completely proper. This is the same situation as Peter’s when he came to believe in God. In conclusion, regardless of the situation, it is permitted to spread the gospel as long as the objective conditions permit and it does not violate the law. This matter needs to be approached according to the truth principles and the dictates of wisdom.
When spreading the gospel, how can someone perform their duty adequately? First, they must be able to comprehend and understand the truth concerning spreading the gospel. Only when they understand the truth can they possess the correct views, know how to deal with wrong or absurd views, and know how to handle affairs and deal with problems in accord with the truth principles. Then, they will be able to discern various incorrect practices and practices of antichrists that violate the truth principles. As such, they will naturally understand which truth principles should be mastered in order to perform their duty of spreading the gospel. To perform this duty, what truth is it of the utmost importance to understand first? You must understand that spreading the message of God’s work is the responsibility and obligation of each of God’s chosen people. It is a commission that God has entrusted to all. This is the source of this duty. Some people say, “I’m not on the gospel team, so do I have this responsibility and obligation?” They all have this responsibility and obligation. The truth concerning this aspect of duty is useful to everyone. I do not know if you have noticed a certain phenomenon in the allocation of various personnel in the church. Some people were once leaders, but they were then replaced because they could not do practical work. After being replaced, as they did not possess any skills or expertise, they could not perform special duties. So finally, they were assigned to the gospel team to spread the gospel, or to water newcomers, or to perform some ordinary duties. If they likewise fail to fulfill any other duties in the church, what should happen to them? Such people are refuse and should be eliminated. So, if you are dismissed as a church leader for incompetence and you don’t have any special talents or skills, then you have to be prepared to spread the gospel. If you can spread the gospel and do your duty as part of the gospel team, then the truth about performing duties adequately is relevant to you. If you fail to perform your duty of spreading the gospel, the truth about performing duties adequately has no relevance to you, and in God’s house, during the time of God’s work, the work of performing a duty is no concern of yours. In your heart, you should clearly know all that this implies. If you do not perform any duty, what relationship do you have with the work of God? Therefore, regardless of the type of duty one performs, it is, naturally, best if they can persevere to the end and perform their duty well. Some people say, “I don’t want to spread the gospel because this always brings me into contact with strangers. There are all sorts of bad people who are capable of all manner of bad things. In particular, religious people treat those who spread God’s gospel of the last days as enemies and are quite capable of handing them over to Satan’s regime. They are worse than the nonbelievers. I could not bear this pain. They might beat me to death, maim me, or hand me over to the great red dragon. That would finish me.” Since you can’t bear the hardship and your stature is so small, you should do the work of your current job well. That would be the wise choice. Of course, it would be even better if you could perform various duties as well as spreading the gospel. Spreading the gospel is not only the responsibility of the members of the gospel team, it is the responsibility of everyone. Because everyone has heard the good news and glad tidings of God’s new work from God, everyone has the responsibility and obligation to proclaim this gospel so that more people will come to God’s house upon hearing the good news and come before God to accept His salvation. This will allow the work of God to reach its conclusion as soon as possible. Such is God’s commission, such is His intention.
Some of those who spread the gospel busily preach the gospel all day long, yet fail to win over a single person after several years of preaching. What has happened? They look so busy, and it seems that they do their duty with great care. So why didn’t they win anyone over? The truth that must be understood for the duty of spreading the gospel is actually similar to the truths that must be understood for other duties. If someone preaches the gospel for several years without winning over anyone, it means that this person has problems. What are these problems? The primary problem is that they do not fellowship clearly on the truth of the vision in spreading the gospel. Why is their fellowship unclear? Either it is because their caliber is too poor for this, or else it is because they are so busy all day that they have no time to read God’s words or to ponder on the truth, and they do not understand anything of the truth, and cannot resolve any notions, heresies, or fallacies. If both of these things are the case, can this person fulfill their duty to spread the gospel? I fear it will be very difficult for them to win people over. No matter how many years they work at spreading the gospel, they will see no obvious results. To spread the gospel, you must first understand the truth of the vision. No matter what questions people ask, as long as you fellowship on the truth so that it becomes clear, you can answer their questions. If you don’t understand the truth of the vision and cannot speak clearly no matter how you fellowship, then however you spread the gospel, you will not get results. If you do not understand the truth, you should focus on seeking the truth and fellowshipping on the truth. If you read more of God’s words, listen to more sermons, fellowship more on the truth of spreading the gospel, and always work hard at fellowshipping on the truth of the vision so as to truly understand the truth of the vision, and to be able to solve the most common notions and problems of religious people, then you will be able to achieve some results, rather than no results at all. Therefore, the failure to understand the truth of the vision of God’s work is one reason why people cannot achieve results when spreading the gospel. In addition, you cannot grasp or understand the questions raised by those investigating the true way, and you can’t see into their hearts to find where their biggest problems lie and determine the main problems hindering their acceptance of the true way. If you can’t be sure about these problems, then you can’t spread the gospel or testify for God to other people. If you only practice preaching the gospel using empty theories, it will not work. Once the people investigating start to ask questions, you will not be able to answer them. You will only be able to perfunctorily brush them off by talking about some doctrines. Will spreading the gospel in this way win people over? Certainly not. Many times, when those who are investigating cannot readily accept the true way, it is because you do not give clear answers to their questions. In this case, they will wonder why it is that you, who have believed for so long, can’t give a clear explanation to these questions. In their hearts, they will doubt whether this is the true way, so they will not dare to believe or accept it. Is this not the true situation? This is the second reason why people may not achieve results when spreading the gospel. If you want to spread the gospel but can’t solve actual problems, then you have no way to spread the gospel to people. If you don’t understand the truth, how can you solve their problems? Therefore, if you want to achieve results in spreading the gospel, you must work hard to seek the truth and thoroughly understand all the questions raised by the people investigating. In this way, you can answer their questions by engaging in fellowship on the truth with them. Some spreaders of the gospel always look for some objective reason that can serve as an excuse, saying, “These people are so difficult to deal with. Each one is more prone to distortions than the last, and none of them accept the truth. They are rebellious and stubborn, and they always cling to religious notions.” Such spreaders of the gospel will not work hard to solve the difficulties and problems of these people, so they will fail each and every time they try to spread the gospel. They lack the least bit of love and cannot persevere very long in this duty. From the outside, it looks like they are very busy, but in fact, they have not made enough of an effort for each person who is investigating the true way. They do not treat the questions these people ask in a serious and responsible manner. They do not seek the truth to find a solution, resolve these questions step by step, and finally win over those people. Instead, they just muddle along. No matter how many people they lose out on, they still stick with the same approach. They work for a few days, and then take a few days off. What do they make of spreading the gospel? They make it into a game, a type of social interaction. They think, “Today I will meet this sort of people and have a lively good time. Tomorrow I will meet that sort of people, and it will be new and interesting.” In the end, they will never win over anyone. They never feel any reproach or any sense of burden due to this failure to win anyone over. By spreading the gospel in this way can they fulfill their duty? Are they not being perfunctory and trying to deceive God? Someone who has always spread the gospel in this way is not truly performing their duty because they have not fulfilled their responsibility at all. They are perfunctory about everything. What other reasons cause a failure to win over people when spreading the gospel? Tell Me. (Not spreading the gospel according to the principles.) It does occur that people only care about numbers when spreading the gospel. Such people do not preach according to the principles and often fail to win people over. It also occurs that some people on the gospel team eagerly fight over potential gospel recipients, thinking that the one who spreads the gospel to more people will earn more credit. When potential gospel recipients see them compete in this way, they will not be edified. Instead, notions will arise in their minds, “You believers in God are not united, there is jealousy and strife among you.” Then, they will not want to believe. This is a stumbling block. Is this also part of the reason why they fail to win over people when spreading the gospel? (Yes.) Some potential gospel recipients have lived in society for a long time and are on guard against all kinds of people, especially strangers. If there is no intermediary to make an introduction, they will be wary when they first meet someone. For example, if you have just met a stranger, you will certainly not casually tell them your name, address, and phone number. When you become familiar with them, when you get to know each other, when you know that they have no ill will toward you, you will become friends. Only then would you give them this information. However, some of those who spread the gospel cannot understand people, so when people are wary of them, they call these people deceitful and wicked. They condemn their defensive mindset, shifting their own responsibility to others. Are those gospel spreaders not also wary of strangers? Why do they not condemn themselves, but think themselves wise in being wary? It’s not fair to treat people in this way. Some of those who spread the gospel ask potential gospel recipients for their personal information as soon as they meet them. If someone doesn’t want to give it to them, this sort of gospel spreader will not want to preach to this person. What sort of disposition is this? It is a malicious disposition. They become angry and refuse to preach the gospel just because someone doesn’t comply with their requirements in such a small matter. How despicable! Why do you want to spread the gospel to others? Is this not doing your duty? If you act as you please, is this still doing your duty? Isn’t this purely laboring? How should you give an account of yourself to God? If you never repent, God will condemn you and eliminate you. You are bringing trouble upon yourself.
I heard of a case where members of two gospel teams met one potential gospel recipient. Then, they argued with each other, both claiming that they were the ones who contacted this person first. What is the use of fighting over this? Is this a matter of ignorance? This is something that cannot be done. So, what is the proper thing to do? Everyone has to discuss the matter together. It doesn’t matter who was the first to make contact. When you find that you have come into contact with the same person, spread the gospel together, divide the work, and cooperate together. If you originally planned to spend two months bringing the gospel to this person, try to do it in only one month since you have more people. Then, everyone should fellowship on the problems and difficulties of the potential gospel recipient, about which aspects of the truth everyone needs to seek in order to solve these issues, on how the two teams should coordinate, and so on. What is the purpose of doing this? It is to win over this person and fulfill your duty. When everyone is of one heart and mind, fellowships together, and directs all their efforts to the same goal, the Holy Spirit will enlighten and lead them. When they are united, people can easily accomplish things, and they will receive God’s blessings and guidance. However, if you don’t act in this way, if you always compete against others, if you are always managing your own business, if you always draw a clear line between yourself and others, and if you only care about winning over people yourself when spreading the gospel—you preach for you, and I’ll win over people on my own—can you fulfill your duty with one heart and one mind? Sometimes people can do their duties on their own, but other times everyone needs to work together harmoniously in order to properly perform the work of the church. If everyone acts on their own and does not cooperate harmoniously, this will mess up the work of the church. Who will take responsibility for this? Everyone is responsible, and the main supervisor bears a larger share of the responsibility. When you mess up the work of the church, you not only fail to do your duty properly, but also commit a great evil, incurring God’s detestation and revulsion. Then you have gotten into trouble. If God condemns you as an evil person or an antichrist who disturbs the work of the church, it will be even worse. You will certainly be revealed and eliminated, and you will even have to receive punishment. If you abandon your duty, what is this equivalent to? You will have no share in God’s work and will not receive God’s salvation. You will be one of the nonbelievers, and your life will lose its meaning. What are you living for today? What value do you bring to the gospel team? How can you reflect your value as an individual? You must fulfill your responsibilities in a down-to-earth manner, do your duty well, and be able to give assurances to God, saying, “I have won over some people by spreading the gospel. I have done everything in my power. Although I am of poor caliber and only possess a few truth realities, I have done the best I could. I have done my duty without throwing in the towel, getting upset, feeling negative and slacking off, or trying to gain fame or profit. Instead, I have suffered more than a little humiliation in preaching the gospel, endured insults and expulsions from religious circles, and made my bed in the street. Although I have experienced negativity and weakness, I did not abandon my duty, but persevered in spreading the gospel at all times. I thank God for the protection and guidance He gave me.” This is what it means to truly fulfill your responsibilities. When the day comes, you will be able to come before God with a clear conscience like this and give an account of yourself. Maybe you met many potential gospel recipients, but did not win over many people. However, based on your caliber and your actions, you won over all the people you could by giving it your best effort. In this case, how will God evaluate you? You have performed your duty adequately. You have tried your best and put your whole heart into it. In order to spread the gospel to potential gospel recipients, you have worked hard to equip yourself with the truth of the vision, and familiarized yourself with the relevant verses of the Bible. You memorized what you needed to memorize and wrote down what you couldn’t memorize. When spreading the gospel, no matter who you met and what questions they asked, you were able to provide a solution. This way, your work spreading the gospel became more and more effective and you were able to win over more people. In order to win over more people when spreading the gospel, in order to perform this duty well and fulfill your responsibilities, you overcame many difficulties in yourself, including your own shortcomings, weaknesses, and negative emotions. All of this you overcame, and you dedicated much time to this task. Is it not necessary to overcome such difficulties in order to perform your duty well? (It is.) Furthermore, in order to bring those investigating the true way to hear God’s voice, to understand and know God’s work, and to accept the true way, you need to understand more of the truth so that you may better testify to God’s work. No matter how deep or shallow your fellowship on the truth is, you should have love and patience. Maybe your listeners ridicule you, insult you, reject you, or do not understand you—no matter, if you can deal with this correctly and patiently fellowship on the truth with them, and you have invested a great deal of effort and paid a high price to this end, then you have fulfilled your responsibilities. Doing your duty this way is doing it adequately.
When some gospel spreaders meet a potential gospel recipient who is arrogant due to their family’s wealth and social status, they always feel inferior and uncomfortable when standing before them. Will this discomfort affect your performance of your duty? If it affects you so that you are unable to do your duty well and cannot fulfill your responsibilities, then you are not performing your duty. If it only affects your frame of mind—making you unhappy and uncomfortable—but you do not abandon your duty or forget your responsibilities and obligations, so that, in the end, you complete your work and do it well, then you have truly fulfilled your duty. Is this the truth? (Yes.) This is the truth, and everyone should accept it. Is this a situation you may find yourself in? For instance, some gospel recipients may look down on you because you come from the countryside. They may even belittle you. How do you deal with this? You say, “I was born in poverty out in the countryside, while you were born to a life of privilege in the city. This was ordained by God. However, God is gracious regardless of where we are born. We live in this era, and we are all blessed to have caught up with God’s work in the last days.” These words are the truth, not an attempt to ingratiate yourself. The gospel recipients will say, “Then you are not as blessed as we are. We enjoy this world and the next, but you can only enjoy the next life. Therefore, we enjoy more than you.” You say, “This is all by God’s grace.” As they do not know God’s work, is it necessary to dispute with them? If you don’t value such things, you will not argue with them. In your heart, you should clearly understand that “I have a duty in my heart, a burden on my shoulders, a mission and an obligation. I won’t argue with them about that. Come the day that they believe and return to the house of God, when they have heard more sermons and understand something of the truth, they will think of their conduct and actions today and be ashamed.” If you think about it this way, your heart will open up. This is actually what happens. If you truly win them over and they really pursue the truth, then after believing for three or five years, they will recognize that it was inappropriate, lacking in humanity, and inconsistent with the truth to treat you as they did when they first met you. They will then have to apologize to you the next time they see you. In the process of spreading the gospel, you will encounter this sort of situation often. When this happens, how do I deal with it? I do not pay much attention to such things. It’s not a big deal. If you do not think it is a big deal, then their words will not bother you. This is called possessing stature. If you understand the truth and possess the truth reality, you will be able to see through many sayings or practices that supposedly cause harm to people. You will be able to iron them out. However, if you can’t see through these things, you will remember such words and actions for a lifetime and, with a wink, a word, or a gesture, anyone may injure you. How severe are such injuries? They will leave a mark on your heart. When you see wealthy people, people with higher status than you, or people like those who once looked down on you and attacked you, you will be afraid and timid. How can you do away with this timidity? You have to see through to their essence. No matter how grand they are, no matter what status or standing they hold, they are nothing but corrupt people. There is nothing special about them. If you see this, your heart will not be constrained. In the work of spreading the gospel, you will certainly encounter these problems. They are all common problems. Some people will not understand you or will be prejudiced against you, or even hintingly and indirectly say ugly things to ridicule you. Some people will say that you preach the gospel to make money, to seek profit, or to find romance. How would you handle such situations? Should you argue with such people? Especially when a potential gospel recipient comes from a family with money, what should you do if you are eating a meal in their house and see that look on their face? If, to maintain your dignity, you do not eat at their house, can you continue to preach the gospel on an empty stomach? You should consider the matter like this: “Today I can eat at their house and spread the gospel to them. They can receive those who spread the gospel. This is their good fortune.” In fact, this is how things actually are. This is their good fortune. They don’t realize it, but you need to know this in your heart. While spreading the gospel, one will often encounter such ridicule, mockery, sneers, and slander, or even find themselves in dangerous situations. Some brothers and sisters, for instance, are denounced or abducted by evil people, and the police are called on others, who are handed over to the government. Some may be arrested and jailed, while others may even be beaten to death. These are all things that happen. But now that we know about these things, should we change our attitude toward the work of spreading the gospel? (No.) Spreading the gospel is everyone’s responsibility and obligation. At any time, regardless of what we hear, or what we see, or what kind of treatment we encounter, we must always uphold this responsibility of spreading the gospel. Under no circumstances can we give up on this duty because of negativity or weakness. The duty to spread the gospel is not smooth sailing, but fraught with danger. When you spread the gospel, you will not face angels, or aliens, or robots. You will face only evil and corrupt humanity, living demons, beasts—they are all humans surviving in this evil space, this evil world, who have been deeply corrupted by Satan, and resist God. Therefore, in the process of spreading the gospel, there are certainly all sorts of dangers, to say nothing of petty slander, sneers, and misunderstandings, which are common occurrences. If you truly regard spreading the gospel as a responsibility, as an obligation, and as your duty, then you will be able to regard these things correctly and even handle them correctly. You will not give up on your responsibility and your obligation, nor will you deviate from your original intention to spread the gospel and testify to God because of these things, and you will never put this responsibility aside, for this is your duty. How should this duty be understood? It is the value and primary obligation of human life. Spreading the good news of God’s work in the last days and the gospel of God’s work is the value of human life.
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