“The Joy Of Serving”
Victor Paul Wierwille
May 12, 1985

Tape Transcript

   Thank-you very much. Please be seated. Well it’s wonderful seeing you all again on a Sunday night. Really I appreciate your coming in from all over the area -- and I’m sure that Reverend Chris Geer and everybody else does. Most of you know, at least the Corps knows, that Chris and Barbara were my aids for about five years. So, through the years we have been very closely knit together. And, real thankful for their ministry and their dedication.

    Phyllis -- good to see you. You got married on Me. ‘s nice. Got anything to show for it?  

   Mrs. Wierwille and I will be returning to the United States tomorrow. And so I just want to, again, thank Chris and Barbara and all the Corps here and staff and everybody, for -- the exquisite way they took care of us. And how blessed I been just to be in their presence.  

   Since this is the meeting here at this time of country coordinators --and of course, what I’m going to say should be applicable to every born again believer, but especially to -- our coordinators. I wanted to just share a little bit tonight on the joy of serving. The joy of serving.

   Number one, you can’t serve unless you’ve got something to serve. So if you are going to serve a dinner, you have to have a dinner to serve, right? Good.

   If you master the foundational class on Power for Abundant Living, and the intermediate class plus the collateral readings that accompany them, you have really something wonderful to serve people --with. That twig and twig area leader, and the country coordinators, leadership of the Corps, of the WOWs, have to all have this joy of serving.

   If you haven’t got the joy of serving you missed something in the Word of God you ought to ah-- put on. Heh, heh. So, number one, you got to have something to serve.

    Number two is love.

   In Ephesians, chapter five -- verse one:  

Be ye therefore followers [imitators] of God, as [beloved, or] dear children;

    Number two:

And walk in love, as Christ also [loved you, is the text], and [gave up] himself for [you] an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.

   I’ll bet most of you thought I was going to read you first Corinthians thirteen. Wouldn’t hurt you to read it sometime again -- and believe what it says. Ha-ha-ha. Then I want you to look at First John, the epistle of first John.

    Chapter three -- verse sixteen:

Hereby perceive we the love of God [and this word “love” is always agapao, or agape], because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

    Verse seventeen:

But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

    Go back to Peter. Flip back a book, first Peter. Chapter two - no, chapter one.

Verse twenty two.

Seeing ye have purified your souls . . .

    That’s renewed mind, ‘cause your soul is not purified when you’re born again. It becomes purified as you renew your mind -- according to the Word.

purified your souls in obeying the truth [there it is,] through the Spirit unto unfeigned [“unfeigned” is genuine] love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently:

   So first, in the joy of serving, you’ve got to have something that’s joyfully to be served, heh heh, secondly love, and then thirdly service. That’s the joy and the order of it.

   I’ll give you the four basic scriptural things relative to service as I know it from the greatness of the Word. Not going to read these, just going give ‘em to you. I’m going to read one of ‘em with you. Luke twenty, twenty-two and following; Luke twenty-three, sixteen and following; John thirteen, one and following.

   But the one I want to read with you is from the Gospel of Mark. Mark, chapter ten.

Verse thirty-five:

And James and John [two of the apostles], Sons of Zebedee, [came] unto him [unto Jesus], saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire.

   Heh, heh, heh -- Sounds sort of selfish, doesn’t it? Heh, heh

And [Jesus] said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you? They said unto him, Grant us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory. [And] Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can you drink of the cup that I drink of ? baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? [It’s referring to his death.]

   Thirty-nine:

And they said unto him, We can. And Jesus said, Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized with shall ye be baptized: But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared.

   Verse forty-one:

And when the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and John. [And] Jesus called them to him [all twelve], and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them.

   See the world is just opposite of the teaching of the Scriptures. They exercise lordship over them; and then the great -eh - when he gets higher up on the ladder, then he exercises authority over the top of them too. That’s why, so many times, we have heard that money is power. Because money buys people, and then people become the slaves of those who have the money. That’s the world.

   Verse forty-three:

But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, [shall be minister -- be your minister -- means minister to you].

   See, every twig coordinator ought to know what’s happening in his twig, among his people. He ought to know his people very well so he can minister to them. You can’t help somebody if you don’t know there’s a need there. So a twig coordinator really has to get close to his people -- to know. And people are usually hesitant to really tell you what they need until -- you have earned their respect. And you earn people’s respect by serving them the Word of God and loving them-- and then learning to keep your mouth shut. You just -- you just never tell anything; you just help people.

   Forgot which verse I was -- forty-three:

But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister:

   Verse forty-four:

And whosoever of you will be the chiefest [the greatest, the toppest], shall be [doulos of all] servant of all.

   Not just minister but a servant of all, a doulos, -- marked out for just serving people.

For even [verse forty-five] the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many

    And after all of my years, and our years of working with people, I think the joy of service is exactly, in a synopsis form, what I’ve given you tonight.

    Number one, you have to take PFAL and master it -- Intermediate, you got to master it; the collateral’s that go with it, you got to master. Then you’ve got something to serve people. And then you have to do it with the love of God in the renewed mind, -- agapao. Then your service is just not a ministering service, it is a doulos service, where you are a marked-out slave for serving.

    And I think this is what has made The Way Ministry so wonderful all over the world, generally speaking, is that we have a lot of the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation among our people and that we are serving our people. So every Twig coordinator, Twig Area, Country, anybody that blesses people, like anybody, even if you are not a Twig coordinator, you ought to master this so you can help somebody in the shop or factory; or wherever you are, so that you got answers for them.

    Outside of this ministry, people, I’ve seen very few answers. If we knew where there were more, we’d go get ‘em! That’s right. Heh, heh.

    I think later on tonight you’re going to hear this old church hymn:

Master, let me walk with Thee

In lowly paths of service free;

Teach me the wayward feet to stay,

And guide them in the homeward way.

Teach me Thy patience! still with Thee

In closer, dearer company,

In work that keeps faith sweet and strong,

In trust that triumphs over wrong;

In hope that sends a shining ray,

Far down the future’s broad’ning way,

In peace that only Thou canst give,

With Thee, O Master, let me live.

   That was my confirmation verse. Heh, heh -- hymn rather, not verse, hymn. Revelation three-twenty was the verse.