A Work of Faith

The passage is there in its entirety
in your bulletin with places for notes if you choose. One of the reasons that made
Martin Luther conclude that in modern vernacular, the epistle
of James was full of straw was the following verse. Luther came
to understand that in the book of James, it was a legitimate
work. But Luther’s initial take on
the book of James was it was not to be part of the New Testament
canon, primarily because of these thoughts. What use is it, my brethren,
if someone says he has faith but has no works? Can that faith
save him? If a brother or sister is without
clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to
them, go in peace, be warm, be filled, and you do not give them
what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so, faith,
if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.” Well, that’s
the verse that caused dear Luther, so much trouble because he had
a difficult time reconciling faith and works. He had come
to the conviction that salvation was by faith and by faith alone
and not by works. And so any entertainment of any
kind of works was for him out of balance and unacceptable.
But if you read through not only the book of James, but the book
of God, You see, the same thought woven throughout Scripture, that
faith is supposed to show itself in works. That’s all James was
saying. He wasn’t saying that by any
means that we’re able to generate, no kind of works, no matter how
great, no matter how grandiose, no works, no matter how consistent,
no matter how selfless, no works can save us. James wasn’t speaking
contrary to that. James wasn’t saying that it’s
salvation by our works, but it’s salvation unto works. Remember,
we are saved unto good works and we shouldn’t be any more
afraid of that verse. But you see in that passage,
attention, if you will, Because there is to be a blending of
faith and works. It can’t be all of faith. We
can’t say, well, we’ve been to church today. I need not care
for my brother, as in that passage. I don’t need to respond to the
needs of those that I see around me. I’ve been to church. I read
my Bible today. Oh God, I prayed. It’s not enough. There is to be a balance. But
neither can we say, Lord, I don’t need to go to church. I’m out
here serving in the soup kitchen. This is my church. That’s out
of balance as well. And James puts it in perfect
balance, but so does the Lord Jesus Christ in the passage before
us. The passage before us, the apostles
essentially were wrestling with the same question. How can I
have a faith that works. How can I know that my works
are of faith? If you would, let’s go to Luke,
verse 5 of chapter 17, where we see there that the apostles
said to the Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord said, if
you had faith like a mustard seed, You would say to this mulberry
tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea and it would obey
you. Which of you having a slave plowing or tending sheep will
say to him when he has come in from the field, come immediately
and sit down to eat. But will he not say to him, prepare
something for me to eat and properly clothe yourself and serve me
while I eat and drink and afterward you may eat and drink. He does
not thank that slave because he did the things which were
commanded, does he? So you too, when you do all the
things which are commanded, you say, we are unworthy slaves. We have done only that which
we ought to have done. Now, last week, I shared with
you about a passage that I had been longing to preach for 15
years. Read the passage early on after becoming a Christian.
Loved the passage. Looked forward to studying the
Gospel of Luke and preaching that passage. Let me take you
back in your mind’s eye. If you’re there with open Bibles,
look just back to verse 1, because that’s the context. He said to
His disciples, it is inevitable that stumbling blocks should
come. People are going to sin and it’s going to trip you up.
It’s going to happen. But woe to him through whom they
come. It would be better for him if the millstone were hung
around his neck and he were thrown into the sea than that he would
cause one of these little ones to stumble. Be on your guard.
If your brother sins, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him.
And if he sins against you seven times a day and returns to you
seven times saying, I repent, forgive him.” That’s the passage
I long to preach for 15 years. And this one before us today
is one that I’ve shuddered to preach for 15 years. So if you
were on the edge of your seats last week, you might want to
sit forward even further this morning. I gave you the context. Jesus tells them that there are
going to be stumbling blocks. There are going to be difficulties.
It is inevitable. And the person that has basically
thrown down these roadblocks to growth in godliness is going
to be judged. It is going to bring trouble
to the perpetrator. And that’s why Jesus says, well,
and they must be watched. They must be watched in our midst
for our own sake. Because soon as we begin to lower
that standard, it begins to affect us and the way that we live.
And that’s why he says they must be confronted. And it is to that
that the apostles find themselves suddenly daunted, overwhelmed. They can’t believe that all that
is being put on their plate. No wonder they cry out, Lord,
increase our faith. If you notice there in verse
five, it is the apostles that come immediately into view. In
verse 1, it’s the disciples in general. All believers in Christ
are disciples, but not all are the apostles. The apostles were
that select group of twelve. And it’s the apostles that come
into view here in verse 5. And if the apostles are struggling,
imagine the rest of the disciples. These apostles. No doubt, among
all the other things that they’d already been saddled with, suddenly
felt the difficulty of sailing through life, conducting their
ministries, facing persecution with all of these stumbling blocks
and all of these controversies and confrontations that needed
to take place. They found themselves overwhelmed. I want to look at this work of
faith this morning to which Jesus commands. He says that we are
to blend the two work and faith, just like James and just like
the rest of the Scriptures. Our faith is to be a working
faith. Our work is to be a faithful
work. There is a blend. I want to give us this morning
the character of faith filled service to God. What is that
character? First of all, this morning, service
to Christ is limitless. Service to Christ is limitless.
In other words, what Christ says here right off the bat is that
we are capable in and of ourselves, even with puny faith of great
deeds. Great deeds. The apostles found themselves
overwhelmed. They didn’t know how they were
going to do it. The things that Jesus keeps piling on their to-do
list seem to be impossible from a human standard. And from a
human standard, they were. They were impossible. And so
the apostles, and I believe rightly, cry out, Lord, increase our faith.
Help us to trust you in the face of this, because as we see it,
we are feeble. We are incapable of doing what
you’ve required. What they ask for, essentially,
is supernatural grace, divine strength so that they can live
and serve God as they’ve been asked. So they ask Jesus to give
them greater faith, faith that’s going to make them spiritually
stronger. Faith that’s going to enable them to act just as
He’s commanded. That’s what they ask for. The
faith that they wanted was a faith to empower them for the duties,
for the struggles, for the challenges of the office. And it’s the same
prayer request that we need to pray every day. Not just, Lord,
increase our faith. Not just, Lord, here are my troubles
before you. But, Lord, strengthen me. Give me greater faith. Help me to trust You through
this latest difficulty that You’ve thrown my way. Through this latest
challenge, this persecution, this trouble, increase my faith. We don’t pray that prayer enough.
We pray that we might tough it out. We pray often that God might
remove it. That’s our favorite prayer. Lord,
take this struggle away. That’s what we pray for. But the faith, if you look at
the apostles’ lives, was a faith no different than ours. Their
challenges were greater. The founding of the church, no
doubt overwhelming to them. The preaching of the gospel.
This unpopular message of Christ on the cross. Christ crucified. That’s what they had to go with
to build a church. So it was a miraculous faith
they were asking for. An energizing, burning zeal that
they were asking for. What they wanted was eloquence
to be able to go out and proclaim Christ with great clarity so
that all the world would come to know what God had provided
in sending Jesus Christ as Savior. They had some faith. They had
a little bit of faith, faith enough to at least go to the
right source and ask for more. They were there and they wanted
more. What this unfolding, the rest
of this passage does is essentially solve the riddle. Is it faith for our work that
they were asking for or faith in their work? And it was faith
for their work. These apostles may have been
tempted. There were many commentators
that in looking at this passage were quite suspect of this request. The arrogance of the apostles
to ask for more faith. That’s kind of how the commentators
went. I don’t see it. I don’t see it as arrogant. I
see these apostles as absolutely overwhelmed. They’ve just been
asked to forgive infinitely. No matter how many times people
come and ask them to forgive, they’re to forgive. And if that
doesn’t resonate with us, then we’re asleep. Because we go through
the same thing. We find it difficult. That’s
one of the greatest difficulties before us. Forgive as many times
as people come to you. Seven times, seven times, seven.
Keep forgiving. J.C. Ryle said it this way, faith.
is a grace which comes and is exercised in varying measures
and degrees. It does not come to full strength
and perfection as soon as it’s planted in the heart by the Holy
Spirit. And if you look once in the New Testament, you’ll
see it a hundred times. There is such a thing as weak
faith, little faith. There is such a thing as great
faith and strong faith. And what these apostles merely
acknowledged was not some arrogance that, Lord, give us some bigger
challenges. We need more responsibility because
we want in on more glory. That’s not what they were saying.
Regardless of what some of the commentators said, that’s not
what they were saying. What they were saying was, Lord, wait a
minute. We are absolutely overwhelmed
at the task at hand and we need to trust you more. Can you not
echo that same prayer request? I know I can. When we see the
responsibilities laid before us and all the challenges that
come and the frustrations, the hurts, the anxieties that come
just through living. Lord, increase our faith. We
don’t know what the apostles were thinking and feeling there.
Luke doesn’t tell us. And so to become overly suspicious
here is just wrong. It’s just wrong. If we have any
faith like the apostles did, there’s nothing wrong with praying
for more faith. There’s nothing wrong for asking
the Lord to increase your faith. Look at the Lord’s response.
The Lord doesn’t belittle them for asking. But he does say,
if you had faith like a mustard seed and you know the parables,
we’ve been there before. That mustard seed, not literally
one of the smallest seeds in the kingdom of God’s plants,
but it is a small and infinitely small seed. What is meant over
and over and over by the use of this illustration is with
this small seed grows into a great tree. There’s the parable of
the kingdom that we’ve seen in times past. small seed, the gospel
is planted, grows into this large tree now that we know as the
church. Jesus uses the same illustration
here of faith. If you had faith, faith like
a tiny little mustard seed, and you exercise that faith, you
would say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the
sea and it would obey you. Now, I don’t know how many of
you have had occasion to throw trees into the ocean. But don’t
park and get overly literal on what Jesus is intending there.
He’s just saying that with even a little bit of faith, great
things are possible. Great things are possible. Even
things beyond, as Paul said, all that we ask or think. All
we’ve got to do is trust God. In the case of these apostles,
here they were. They had some faith. They had come to faith in Jesus
Christ. They had placed their faith on
Him. They trusted Him for salvation. They were trusting in no other,
not their works, not the Jewish system. They had placed their
faith in Christ. They knew Christ. And now they
had to go out and proclaim the gospel and face persecution and
establish the church. The church of Jesus Christ. Jesus
said, with even a little bit of faith. What would be harder? To will a tree, to go throw itself
in the ocean, or to go preach this gospel? The simple gospel
message. Face whatever difficulties and
persecution you have to face and slowly but surely establish
the church that Christ has promised to bless. What’s harder? That’s
what I thought. Think of Abraham. You talk about
a daunting task. Abraham, you’re going to go.
I’m going to give you the land that I’ve promised you and this
seed, this generation upon generation and this blessing that you’re
going to inherit. OK. And he went. And he went in faith
and so did King David. David, this little guy facing
Goliath and he faced that Goliath and that was just the founding
of his ministry. And his whole ministry was just
like that. A step of faith, trusting in God and what God had commanded
him to do. And don’t you know it in your
own lives? Haven’t you seen God work infinitely far beyond your
puny little faith time and time again? What about those times of facing
a friend or a loved one on a sickbed and praying for them and seeing
God work far beyond your faith? It’s always far beyond our faith. In fact, long time, long since
we’ve given up, God is still actively at work. Haven’t you
seen laws changed in the land? Haven’t you seen people converted
to Christ come to faith? Haven’t you seen people change?
Haven’t you seen you change over time? Haven’t you seen marriages
changed? And people changed? Even with a little bit of faith.
What Jesus says here is that even with a tiny little bit of
faith, service to Christ is limitless. There’s no end. No end to what
you can accomplish by God’s grace. To think that I, one day, all
I wanted to do is become a better Sunday school teacher. To think
that I was allowed to graduate from seminary. They let me out.
To think that I was placed in a church and now I have the privilege,
week in and week out, of serving Christ in this capacity. Beyond
all that we ask or think. To think that I would be given
such a wife and such children. To think that we would be given
so many blessings from the Lord. It is always beyond all that
we ask or think, isn’t it? Isn’t it? There’s another point that Christ
makes here, and it’s a difficult transition. There are some who
said that these passages, these two sections are totally and
completely unrelated. Verses five and six stand alone,
verses seven and following stand alone. They are completely unrelated.
And I say not so. What Christ is talking about
here is work. Just as he just spoke about,
it’s a faithful work. It’s a working by faith. Point
two. The character of a faith filled
service to God, secondly, is not only that this service to
Christ is limitless. Secondly, it is selfless. It
is selfless. I see the young faces out there.
Those of you who have aspired to the work of Christ, I don’t
know where you are in your training. You’ve come. You’ve come here
to get further training. And I see those young faces and
you’re so enthused and exuberant. And you’re going to go out there
and you’re going to get beat up. You’re going to get beat up time and
time and time again. And you know what? That’s what we’re
called to. They just forgot to tell you about it at orientation.
I want to go to selflessness. This work to which we’ve been
called is unto the Lord. It’s unto the Lord. In other
words, this work that we’ve been called to keeps a proper perspective. Let’s go there. Look at verse
seven. Where Jesus says, which of you having a slave plowing
or tending sheep will say to him when he has come into the
field, come immediately and sit down to eat. Now, the language
is not that difficult. But it’s possible that maybe
you’re missing the point here. It’s the landowner, the slave
owner who is in focus here, and it says, are you expecting to
come in out of the field and have the landowner bring you
your slippers, sit down in the recliner? It’s all there in the
Greek. Trust me. Sit down in the recliner and
let the landowner, the boss, bring you dinner. Is that how
it works? No. When believers have received
the gift of faith, it’s a living faith, and as a result, they’re
able to perform all of these glorious, incredible things on
behalf of Christ, there’s always this danger that we become overly
self-satisfied. We begin to think that with us,
God’s got a pretty good deal. We’re a pretty good team. Me
and God. It’s always me first. Me and
God. We do pretty good work for the
sake of our kingdom. But that kind of attitude is
wrong. It’s wrong and it’s sinful. And I believe that’s exactly
what Jesus meant to head off in the Apostles. They’d ask for
greater faith. I don’t believe that Jesus is
sharply rebuking them, but He’s warning them ahead of time, look,
even with great faith is going to come great danger. You’re
going to be tempted. You’re going to be tempted to think that it’s
you and it’s not you. That it’s all about you, that
you should be able to come back from a hard day’s work of ministry
and put your feet up and let the Lord attend to you. And it
doesn’t work that way. It never works that way. The parable here that he gives
is just an illustration from daily life. And what it illustrates
is that even the best of us do more than our barest duty in
serving Christ. No matter what prerogatives of
faith that we have, no matter what privileges, no matter what
service we have or what title, we are to beware of pride in
the midst of that. See, these apostles, perhaps,
just like us, already counting the jewels in the crown, right?
Already figuring, let’s see. Boy, I accomplished a great thing
on that date. I wonder what jewel that will
earn me. In fact, I’m going to need a bigger crown. We think
that way, don’t we? You see, in the life of the disciples,
this outward service, what Christ really wanted was personal devotion
to Him. He wanted them to be doing these
things out of love, not in view of some future reward, not in
view of some payment of some kind. He wanted them in absolute
devotion to him and to him alone. And so often we’re not. So often
we lose sight. Look again at verse seven. Which
of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to
him when he’s come in from the field, come immediately and sit
down to eat? But will he not say to him, get
up, prepare me something to eat, properly clothe yourself. You’re
not going to wear your slave clothes to serve me dinner. Properly
clothe yourselves and serve me while I eat and drink. And afterward,
you may eat and drink. That’s the fear that Jesus wanted
to put in the apostles minds is that they may begin to think
that the Lord was their servant. Now, unless you think it’s too
far fetched, I ask you just take a look around at the church in
America today, and that’s exactly what we’ve done. We’ve taken
Christ and we have made him our servant as our lackey to do our
bidding, our will. Haven’t we? That wasn’t the Apostle Paul’s
perspective. He said, for me to live is Christ
and to die is gain. And if I am to live on in the
faith, this will mean fruitful labor. We are the slaves. We are always the slaves. We
are the servant of Christ, not he us. The Apostle Paul elsewhere wrote
that all was to be done to the glory of God. It is a labor that
we are called to. Paul called himself, essentially,
a bondservant. It was one of his favorite titles
for himself. And if the Apostle Paul relegated
himself by grace to bondservant status, what are we? What are
we? And who are we to ever raise
our heads and speak to the Lord as if He is our servant? Bring
me my slippers. Give me my due. Bring me my reward. Do what I ask, Lord. We are called to service. You
know, the funny thing about this passage, it gives the benefit
of a doubt that we are serving. Look at it. It says, which of
you having a slave plowing or tending sheep? I don’t know if
you’ve done either, but it’s work. Plowing is work. And it gives the benefit of a
doubt to the slave that he’s actually out there working. And
then he comes home and he comes home to what? More work. And
you know the bottom line is, and you know it in your heart,
many of us are not working. We weren’t out in the field plowing.
We’re not out tending the sheep. And when we come back, we’re
not preparing any food. We’re not working. We’re not
serving. Time and time again, in God’s Word, we are urged to
serve. We’re urged to serve others and
serve Christ. And the bottom line is some of
us can’t even relate to this because we’re not serving. Is there any more poignant moment
in all of Scripture when there in the upper room, just prior
to those moments where Christ is arrested and placed on the
cross, Christ takes up a bull and begins to go around to all
of his faithful apostles to wash their feet, including Judas. And he goes around and he washes
their feet. No one washed his. No one reciprocated. No one noticed all the other
dirty feet and did anything about it. No one did anything. Only the Lord. And at the end
of it, he said, do you know why I’ve done this? I did it as an
example so that you would serve one another and we don’t. Can
any of us say that we have fully fleshed out our giftedness, that
we’ve used everything that God’s given us? In a sense, that’s what Jesus
was saying to the apostles. Can you honestly pray for more
faith when you haven’t even exercised that which you have? Can you
pray for more opportunity, more responsibility when you haven’t
been faithful with what you’ve been given? Some people, by their words and
their actions, want to make Christ their servant. And people, we
are not on vacation. We’re not on vacation in this
world. We are here to serve. It is to be a life of selfless
unto the Lord service. There’s a third point. The character of faith filled
service to God is seen here, not only in service to Christ
being limitless and selfless, but thirdly, it is meritless. You know, that is the beauty
of being a pastor is I get to make words every week. It’s meritless. It doesn’t obligate God one iota. Nothing goes into your account.
In the final analysis, God does not stand an obligation to you
one bit. We’ll see why. Look at verse
9. He doesn’t thank the slave because
he did the things which he was commanded, does he? There are
times when God commends. And there are some people that
get hung up on this passage because there are those passages of Scripture
that point to those blessings that God will bestow. Thou good
and faithful servant.” Those kinds of commendations that God
gives. This isn’t saying, this isn’t
in contradiction to any of that. What he’s saying is that if you
take the typical work situation, the owner, the manager, he is
not obligated to bring you into his office and thank you and
pat you on the back day in and day out for what you’ve done.
That’s why he pays you. Go back to the words. He doesn’t
thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded,
does he? In order to understand those
words, you’ve got to remember how subtle the poison of self-righteousness
is and how susceptible even his own apostles were to it. You
say, what could the apostles have been accused of? Well, listen.
In Matthew chapter 19, Peter said to him, Behold, we’ve left
everything and we followed you. What then will there be there
for us? I mean, can’t you just see Peter?
And it hit with a thud. Peter essentially says, look,
Lord, let’s go back to our contract. I had my lawyer look at it this
week and we fulfilled our end of the bargain. What’s in it
for us? I mean, can you imagine the audacity
of the question? And I love Peter because it’s
our question. It’s just like us. Another situation came up with
the apostles, the apostles mother, you know, and doesn’t mom always
just step in and say exactly what you really want to say? Jesus said to him, what do you
wish? And he said to him, command that in your kingdom, these two
sons of mine may sit one on your right and one in your left hand.
You see, there was always trouble brewing. There is always going
to be trouble brewing. If it was there with the apostles,
do we think that it’s not going to be there with us? This pride,
this desire, this desire for merit and recognition and recompense,
payback, reward. We want to earn something. We
want to gain something by serving Christ. One pastor said it this way,
as a matter of fact, men are not in the habit of acknowledging
the daily service of their dependents. And Jesus draws from this common
circumstance a rebuke of the attitudes which would spin out
to eternity of a selfish desire for personal rewards. That’s
us. That’s our perspective, isn’t it? We can’t wait to get to heaven
to see how big the crown is and how many of the rewards and what
all God’s got in store for us. Look, if you will, at verse 10.
For Jesus’ conclusion on the matter. Where Jesus says, so
you too. I mean, he gives them this perfect
parallel and then he zeroes in and he says, this is exactly
applicable to you. So you too, when you do all the
things which are commanded you now, have any of us ever lived
one of those days? I mean, let’s think realistically,
he’s speaking. Hypothetically. Best case scenario,
for the apostles’ sake. When you do all the things which
are commanded you. Can you imagine ever living a
single day? Let’s think of it. Can you imagine
living even for a single hour perfectly as unto the Lord? Your
attitudes are right. Your behavior is right. Your
words are right. Your actions are right. It doesn’t
happen. He’s giving them the benefit
of the doubt But even if, Jesus says, even if you’re able to
do that, what is owed you? If Adam, there in the garden,
if he had obeyed God perfectly and never tasted of that fruit,
if he had turned a blind eye to his wife’s request and forbidden
her to do the same and lived a life of perfect obedience from
that day forward, would God have owed him a single thing? No. One pastor said it this way,
we are all naturally proud and self-righteous. We think far
more highly of ourselves than what we deserve and our character
than we have any right to do. This is a subtle disease which
manifests itself in a hundred different ways. Most people see
it in other people. Few will admit its presence in
themselves. But seldom will a man be found,
no matter how bad he is, who does not secretly flatter himself
that there is somebody worse than he is. Seldom will a saint
be found who is not at times tempted to be satisfied and pleased
with himself.” He’s plateaued. In other words, he feels like
he’s arrived. He feels like he’s lived up to
what God has required in people we never will. And even on our
best day, even on our best day, we don’t commend God to us in
one bit. If we have been enabled by God’s
grace to carry out the responsibilities Say we do it with some degree
of loyalty, some degree of faithfulness, some degree of glorifying the
Lord. We are called to humility, a
continued humility, to love and serve the Lord continually because
we have not earned one bit. We have not accrued a day off.
We have not accrued some honor or glory to ourselves at all.
It is without merit. Look at what it’s called. Calls
it unworthy or depending on your translation, unprofitable. That’s frightening that our work
is considered to be unprofitable. It’s unprofitable in the sense
that we have put God under no obligations. There is no contractual
agreement that if we’re faithful in this realm, if we do this,
this and this, If we live a life of perfect obedience, somehow
God owes us and is obligated. The bottom line is we’ve received
from God all that we have. Everything that we are. Every
breath we take is a gift from God. And if we’ve done no more
than meet the just demands of what He’s given, we’ve done what’s
right. We’re like a debtor that has paid his balance. God doesn’t
owe us the thanks. You know, when you pay off visa,
they don’t send you a thank you statement. You know, when you
drive I-25, bear with me. Pretend that you drive I-25 perfectly
and you use your blinker every time. And you drive the speed
limit the whole way. You never drift or sway. Hands
are at ten and two, mirrors properly adjusted. You know what? You
will never have the state patrol pull you over and commend you.
Thank you for setting such a good example for all the other drivers
on I-25 today. And so to think this way, that
somehow God is going to owe us. Somehow God is building up, we
are building up an account before God so that He has to repay us
in that final day. It’s ridiculous. It’s really ridiculous thinking. This word unprofitable signifies
one who has rendered no service to God beyond what was due. We
did everything perfectly. It’s exactly what God expected
and deserved, right? I’ll never forget my first job.
My dad will remember it. Maxwell’s Restaurant. Gonna go
in and be a busboy. Walked in and I got a shirt.
They gave me a shirt. Gave me a shirt to wear. I was no longer a busboy. I was a table engineer, I’ll
tell you. And I get there and they tell
me, you know what? You can drink, for working here,
you can drink all the soda you want. And I went. First thing
I did, check out the soda fountain. Root beer. They had root beer.
And I pushed it and it flowed and it continued to flow. All
the root beer I can drink. And I pitied those poor people.
They were going to go broke paying me root beer. And I showed up
to work in my shirt and immediately I got myself a root beer and
I was there maybe 10, five minutes and they gave me a bus tub and
they said, go clear off that table. They expected me to work and
I went and I cleared off the table and I did a great job.
Salt shakers, sugar all in its right place. And I went back
and I put back the tub. started just about to take a
vacation and they told me there’s another table. I thought, what
do these people think I am? And it went like that the whole
rest of the day and the next day was the same. And you know
what? It’s been the same ever since. When I showed up, they
expected me to work. And it dawned on me somewhere
in my mid 20s. That’s what they’re paying me
for. It was beyond busing tables at that point, but every job
has been the same. When we show up to work and we
do the work, the thanks we get is the paycheck at the end of
it. That’s what they’re paying us for and people in God’s kingdom. When we do the work that we do,
we do it not to gain some merits, not for ourselves or anybody
else. No one merits their salvation from us. We don’t earn or deserve
our salvation in the first place. And so to think for a moment
that we would gain anything more than what is already obligated
to us is foolish thinking. It’s meritless. One old Puritan said it this
way. We sleep half our lives. We give God a tenth of our time,
and yet we think that our good works can merit heaven. What
have I been doing today? I’ve talked two hours. I’ve been
at meals three hours. I’ve been idle for four hours.
Ah, enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord. Do you hear
the tone of his voice? We sing it from time to time.
Oh, to grace, how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be.
God is not in debt to us. We are in debt to God. We owe
God everything in us, as John said earlier. Our life, our breath,
our all. The Apostle Paul said it this
way, whatever things were gained, I count but loss so that I may
serve Christ but I may gain Christ.” That was Paul’s whole perspective,
wasn’t it? Is it yours? Let’s pray. O gracious God, we would serve
You and we would serve You with faith and make it to be a faithful
service The service that honors you in all things. The service
that sees an unlimited potential of serving you. The service that
humbles itself, much like you did in girding yourself with
a towel and washing your apostles’ feet. Father, a service that
seeks no glory, no reward, except that of growing your kingdom
for the sake of Christ our Savior. Lord, examine our hearts, we
pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.