Serving the Master

I wrestled with this passage
all week and difficult passage to outline and take it with a
grain of salt and take it as an attempt to gild the lily when
really the passage is beautiful in and of itself. You
figure all I could do is really foul it up anyway. So there you
have it. We’ll use this little outline,
but what we want to do is pick up,
in essence, the context where we found ourselves in last week.
Jesus was calling people to watchfulness. Remember, as we closed last week,
we took a thought from a Puritan who said, time is short. Eternity
is long. I mean, if you think of it, time,
you can put your hands at any distance. That’s time. That’s
your lifespan. Whether you spread them all the
way apart, time is that. And dropping your hands to the
side is eternity. That’s eternity. Time is short. Eternity is long.
It is only reasonable that this short life be lived in light
of eternity. And with that, Christ called
His apostles to watchfulness. Perhaps there were others in
the audience, perhaps a greater number of disciples, but he called
them to vigilance. And not just to watch for Christ’s
return, but to be active about His return. Look again at verse
35, where we saw there the nature, if you will, of spiritual preparedness. He said, be dressed in readiness
and keep your lamps lit. A couple of analogies or metaphors,
if you will, to absolute readiness. Absolute readiness for the Lord
to return. We saw later the blessing of
spiritual preparedness. Blessed are those slaves whom
the Master will find on the alert when He comes. And then He goes
on to all those things that He’s going to do for them. girding
up Himself to serve, having them recline at the table and serving
them. We don’t know exactly what that
looks like in eternity, but it sure sounds good to me, doesn’t
it? As opposed to the alternative. And then we saw the necessity
of spiritual preparedness. What’s the big deal? Christ is
going to come anyway. There are going to be some that
are ready and some that are unready. We’re not going to lose our salvation
per se. If we’re truly saved and we’re
not completely ready, we’re not going to lose our salvation.
So what’s the big deal? Jesus said if the head of the
household had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would
not have allowed his house to be broken into. He uses that
repeated analogy through Scripture that it’s going to come as a
thief in the night. It’s going to catch almost everybody
by surprise. You too be ready. For the Son
of Man is coming in an hour that you do not expect. He calls us
to readiness. And as is so often the case with
our beloved brother Peter, Peter asked the question that everybody
there, the twelve at least, if not the extended crowd of the
disciples, and he asked the question that every one of us would have
been thinking in the same moment. Are you talking to us? Does this
refer to us? The apostles probably had this
elitist mentality that absolutely guaranteed them a warm welcome
of the Savior. But were they too being called
to readiness? Certainly the extended disciples,
this rabble that seemed to follow Jesus wherever they go, sometimes
out of impure motives. We knew that Jesus was probably
talking to them. Doesn’t your own heart say the
same thing? Doesn’t your own heart say, well, I’m ready. Well,
not, what’s his name? Our hearts have a tendency to
do that, don’t they? To think that we give ourselves
a better assessment. Think that we’re more ready than
the next. And so, Peter begins this passage by asking a question.
Let’s pick it up, if you would, in verse 41. Peter said, Lord, Are you addressing this parable
to us or to everyone else as well? And the Lord said, who
then is the faithful and sensible steward whom his master will
put in charge of his servants to give them their rations at
the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his
master finds so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, that
he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that
slave says in his heart, my master will be a long time in coming,
and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat
and drink and get drunk, the master of that slave will come
on a day when he does not expect him, and in an hour he does not
know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the
unbelievers. And that slave who knew his master’s will and did
not get ready or act in accord with his will will receive many
lashes, but the one who did not know it and committed deeds worthy
of a flogging will receive but a few. From everyone who has been given
much, much will be required. And to whom they entrusted much,
of him they will ask all the more. Peter, ever the one to take our
place. Ever the one to ask the question
that everybody wants to ask, but no one’s courageous enough
to. Peter wasn’t worried about ego. Peter didn’t worry about
what anybody else was thinking. Peter was in the moment. It was
as if nobody else was there. Repeatedly. This is where Peter
lived. He was impetuous. You can’t look
at the Gospels and not come away with a clear sense that this
was an impetuous man. Always speaking the first thing
that came into his head. Where else would somebody except
a guy like Peter have gotten the notion to step out of a boat
into water and try to walk on the water? Faith? Yes. Impetuousness? Absolutely. How
else could you describe the scene where all of a sudden God’s glory
shines and Christ is being transfigured there on the mountain? And Peter
gets the grand notion to build three tents as some kind of a
homage. Who else but Peter, when told
that the disciples, the apostles themselves, were going to deny
Christ and fall away? Who else but Peter rebuked the
Lord and said, no, not me, never? Who else but Peter, when giving
marching orders after being restored into ministry there in John 21?
He had gone fishing and Christ went and sought him back out
and put him back in the ministry. And the first thing that Peter
can worry about is how come he isn’t going to have to suffer
like me? What about him? You know what? Peter is a living
representation of us. Everything he does, we can see
in us, can’t we? And so for this particular scenario,
Jesus had just uttered these solemn words. Be watchful. Be
ready. Be on the alert. For Peter, there is a touch of
self-confidence in this. Lord, are you addressing this
parable to us or to everyone else as well? He knew that he
was somehow figured in this, but was he being isolated? Was
Jesus zeroing in on the apostles? Peter seems to have a sense that
it might refer to him. But he wants to know the scope
of this parable. He wants to take the pressure,
in a sense, off of himself, but spread it around. Everybody should
be watchful. We should all be as the apostles. No wonder Peter’s curiosity had
been provoked. Jesus had been speaking about
those who would not be ready at his coming. Jesus has said as much. And so you can understand Peter’s
concern, looking about it as other apostles,
the other disciples and wondering exactly how far this parable
went. Jesus responds with an answer,
but he doesn’t answer Peter’s question directly. He answers
a question with a question. He provokes Peter to think. He
provokes Peter to think about the life of a servant, the life
of a steward, or if you will, a slave, as Matthew calls it.
Think about that. Who is faithful? Who is the wise
and sensible steward? He asks Peter a question to get
Peter to think and answer the question for himself. Does this
apply to them? In short, the answer is yes.
Not only did it apply to the apostles, and not only did it
apply to the disciples of the day, it applies to every Christian
who’s ever lived and walked the earth. Every Christian. Every
Christian is called to faithfulness. Every Christian is called to
the service as a slave to the Master. Look at verse 42. I called them three possessions.
All the things that I want to talk about in essence, are considered
as possessions of the slave. The servant of Christ. First of all, look at the servant’s
reward. What’s in it for us? Well, let’s look. These are the
willfully obedient servants. Verse 42, and Jesus just asked
the simple question to Peter, who then is the faithful and
sensible steward? Which one is he? Whom his master
will put in charge of his servants to give them their rations at
the proper time.” Don’t be panicked at that word, steward, slave.
Servants of God. What a great concept. That we
are considered to be as stewards or servants of God Almighty Himself. You know what? Paul used that
word bondservant, not as some kind of a falsely humble put
down of himself. He considered it a high honor
to be a bond slave of Christ. A high honor. In essence, to
illustrate first to Peter what he means, Jesus tells, as it
were, a parable. Not all the parabolic sayings
fit into our grand list of the parables, but there are some
sayings that just they’re so simple and they lie so close
to the surface We can see them for what they are. A little story
that means something else. It’s that of a master with a
number of servants. And he’s about to go on a long
trip. But before he leaves, he places his most trusted servant
in charge of all the others. And notice that that servant
being in charge is a servant himself of the others. Jesus, in effect, says that Every
one of us. Every one of us can apply this
warning to our own lives. Every one of us is as a steward
before Almighty God, caring for the others. Did he mean specifically the
apostles? He certainly included them in
the first place. But then he goes on and if you
take that by proxy, it applies to every pastor that’s ever walked,
every elder, every servant of God. But it goes down and the
roots of it go down much deeper. They go down far enough to touch
every one of you. That we’re all called to this
kind of faithful service. Faithful, wise stewardship. Paul, in departing his ministry,
greeting those Ephesian elders one last time, fellowshiping
with them, gave them one parting exhortation. The exhortation
sounds strangely familiar. Be on guard for yourselves and
for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you
overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with
his own blood. He warned them to be on guard,
to be on watch. And it’s no less true for the
pastor than it is for the people. We’re all to be on guard. We’re
all to be eagerly watchful of Christ, eagerly watchful over
our lives, eagerly watchful over others. I love the way that the
passage that we just read, the little quotes to others, to not
allow sin upon one another. That’s what we commit to as members. How a fly survived into the dead
of winter, I do not know, but there he is. So the office bearers
of the church obviously are in focus. They’re obviously the
ones that Jesus has his focus on here, but the focus extends
and much like Levin goes on to touch every believer. Jesus goes
on and says, blessed And again, the beauty of that word. Oh,
how very happy is that slave whom his master finds so doing
when he comes. So doing what? Doing what he
asked, what did he ask? Let’s go back and look who then
is the faithful, faithful and sensible steward whom his master
will put in charge of his servants to give them their rations at
the proper time. So here, and I told you, the
servant was a servant. Now he’s a servant of the servants.
The master has put them in charge to give them their rations at
the proper time, their food. And because of his faithfulness
in doing that, he’s going to be blessed, made extremely happy. And we’ll see how in a moment.
But the attitude with which he waits is one of faithfulness,
not sloth. It’s not idleness. He doesn’t
put his feet up on the coffee table and wait until he sees
the dust under his master’s feet before he gets about his duties.
We had some friends over and the husbands were laughing about,
you know, when wives travel, how bad the house gets, right?
Isn’t that how we live, men? And then you know that she’s
due back in an hour and you set about all hands on deck. Everybody’s
got a job. And the wife comes back and she
thinks that she hasn’t been missed and isn’t needed. when if she
had only seen the house 20 minutes earlier? Oh, but blessed is the
slave that doesn’t live that way. Blessed is the slave that
when his master comes home, he finds him busy doing what he
called him to do. What did he call him to do? Give
rations, food. What is that? What does that
represent in the Christian kingdom except the Word of God? to feed
one another the Word of God. It’s exactly what Jesus, when
Jesus recommissioned Peter into the ministry there in John 21,
what did he tell him? Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. There in Acts 20, the passage
I just quoted from, when Paul is appealing to the Ephesian
elders, he had given to them the example of his own life that
he had preached the whole counsel of God. He fed them. He gave
them their rations, their food at the proper time. He’s not
talking about opening a soup kitchen here. There’s no problem
with soup kitchens. But what he’s talking about here
is a faithful steward. A steward that gives what is
truly good and truly needful at the right time. And he calls
every one of us to it. Calls every one of us to minister
to others. either in counsel, in sharing a prayer request,
in encouraging by God’s Word, in teaching, in teaching Sunday
school, teaching others, leading others to Christ, pointing them
to the Savior. Every one of us. I wonder Paul’s
parting counsel to Timothy. He said it’s going to get bad,
Timothy. Really bad. Really, really, really
bad. Preach the Word. Preach the Word. Feed my sheep. Give them their
food that is their due. And it’s a frightening thought.
It’s a frightening thought, even though it’s a recurring theme
from this pulpit. It’s a frightening thought that as a church in America,
we have abandoned that. We’ve gone away from feeding
the sheep. We’ve gone away from a high view
of Scripture. We’ve relegated God’s Word to,
at very best, second place. in our methodology. Verse 44, what is the blessing
that this slave reaps? Verse 44 says, truly I say to
you, He will put him in charge of all his possessions. You say,
what does that mean in heaven? I don’t know. What are we going
to get if we’re faithful and we get to heaven? I don’t know.
But it sure sounds good, doesn’t it? What does God own up there? Streets of gold. I don’t know.
I don’t know what I’m going to get, but a promise from God is
a good thing. God will keep his word. God is
faithful to his word. And if he gives me a promise,
even if I don’t understand that promise in full, I can take it
at face value and know that it is a good thing, a very good
thing. He says, oh, how very happy. The principle is found
elsewhere, isn’t it? He who is faithful in a little
thing is faithful in much. If God can trust us here with
a little Bible study, if God can trust us here with sharing
our faith with a neighbor who we’re so petrified of, so petrified
of their opinion of us, if we’re faithful to do that, can’t He
entrust us with more? Isn’t it true in the realm in
which we live, the earthly realm, when you see somebody who’s hardworking
and faithful, Whatever job you do or see, you see somebody faithful,
you know that they can take on more. You know that they can
be entrusted with greater responsibilities. That’s exactly what Christ says. Sadly, the opposite is true as
well. He who is unrighteous in a very little thing is also unrighteous
in much. Jesus says if we’re unfaithful
in the little things, it’s not saying that we’re going to lose
our salvation. But if we’re unfaithful in these little things, if we
don’t lay hold of opportunities, if we don’t hold fast the Word
of God in our own lives, trying to live faithfully, what makes
us think that we’ll be so faithful and such great faithful people
in the future? A faithful Christian servant is
blessed with additional responsibilities. And it’s a glorious thing. It’s
not going to be a life of kicking back in heaven. Everybody coming
along congratulating you on what a faithful servant you were.
You’ll be given additional, greater responsibilities. How? What does it look like? I have
no earthly idea. But it’s a good promise from
God. There’s another possession that belongs to servants. Servants
of a different kind, but a possession nonetheless. But not a good possession. This time we see the servant’s
punishment. What about those that don’t live
as they’re called to live? Who really don’t possess the
grace of Christ in their heart? Who go through the motions, time
in and time out, week after week, year after year, all the while
living a hypocritical lie? What happens in the end to them?
Look at verse 45. These are the willfully disobedient.
Verse 45 says, but if that slave says in his heart, my master
will be a long time in coming. No wonder Matthew in this parallel
passage calls this slave an evil slave. He has an evil heart.
This is not a believer. This is not a Christian man.
This is not the same slave. And somehow he loses his salvation
because he’s found to be evil. This is one that never was saved,
who just went through the motions. And what it really points to
in the context is the Pharisees going through the motions, all
this religious activity and never once, never once ministering
to others. In the end, he’s proven to be
a fraud and he gets a fraud’s reward. Look at his attitude. If that slave says in his heart,
doesn’t that even right there start off on a bad foot? Aren’t
we always more courageous to think thoughts and to mutter
under our breath things that we would never say publicly?
You know, people that irritate us, we walk away from them, perhaps
our boss. We walk away from them muttering things that we’d never
say publicly. What did you say? Nothing. Right? I know that never happens in
your home. But if that slave says in his
heart, and so you see this putrid thing rising from within, hearts are evil. This slave’s
heart is wicked to the core. Proverbs 23.7 says it well, doesn’t
it? For as a man thinks within himself,
so he is. His heart is not with you. I used to have a seminary professor
that used to call it the mission control center of the body. You can tell he was raised in
the 50s and 60s, right? When now we would call it the
chip or the motherboard or something, you know, neat like that. But
it’s where everything starts. And in this guy’s case, his heart
is evil to the core, so nothing good can come. And watch what
comes. If that slave says in his heart,
if this is what bubbles out of his wicked heart, my master will
be a long time in coming. Let’s kick back. He’s a hypocrite. He says one thing and does another. He took the responsibility from
the master in giving him these responsibilities, but he does
another. And so quickly things go as they
often do from bad to worse. My master will be a long time
in coming and he begins to beat the slaves, both men and women,
and to eat and drink and get drunk. What he characterizes
here is just a house of disorder, disarray, revelry and partying. A house where No good thing is
going on. We see the spirit of this in
2 Peter 3. Where’s the promise of His coming? Don’t we see that spirit in the
people that we talk to from time to time? Oh, right. I’ve heard all about Christ coming
back. I wonder, Paul said in 1 Corinthians
15, if we don’t have the resurrection to look forward to, if we don’t
have a life of answering to God to look forward to, we might
as well eat, drink and be merry. We might as well party it up
if this is all there is. But Paul said that isn’t all
there is. There is a life of face-to-face
with God. There is a life of answering
to God for how we’ve lived. There is a life of being blessed
according to how we’ve lived, or cursed, as the case may be.
It’s a sad feature, too, of church history. If you’ve ever studied
church history, you know that this is true. Even of our own day and age,
perhaps you’ve even lived through these kind of so-called church
leaders, that there are many arrogant, self-willed, envious,
harsh leaders, aren’t there? There are many that begin to
beat and abuse the slaves that they’re only in it for their
own good. They tend to lord everything
over the others, over those that are graciously so-called entrusted
into their care, and they begin to lord it over them and abuse
them at every turn. They’re in it only for their
own good. Think immediately in the context
of the Pharisees. But you think in our own day
of the abusive pastors, elders that we’ve known. It’s a fearful thing. It’s a
fearful thing to serve. As I study church history, there
were dozens and dozens of popes and so-called shepherds of God’s
people that were just downright abusive to them. harsh, harsh
mistreatment. One pastor in sewing this up
used three C’s to describe this situation, to describe this man. He’s careless, he’s cruel and
he’s carousing. Interesting thought. He’s careless,
couldn’t care about the master. He’s cruel to others and he’s
carousing. He’s just in it for himself.
begins to throw his weight around and act like a tyrant. And you
know what it reminded me of? We’ve been studying the kings.
We studied a particular king named Rehoboam. Apparently, his
dad was pretty harsh. And so they came to him and said,
you know, look, maybe you could take it easy on us. Your dad
was so harsh and he made it even more. terrible in the land. He made it even worse to live
in. That’s the image that Jesus has here. That’s what He says.
I guess what I ask is for each
one of you to look at your own heart and note the tendency of
this. We always judge others more harshly than we do ourselves.
We’re always much more gracious about our own misgivings, our
own faults, sins. Indiscretions. We’re always more
forgiving. That’s a practical way that we
beat others. We’re harsh. We don’t let them up. We’re not
going to forgive them for their sin. We’re going to make them
pay. We want them to repent. Sackcloth. Ashes. Bring it on. No wonder Paul’s advice to young
Timothy. was essentially to beware of
this very tendency. Beware of this tendency. You’re
not the Lord himself. You’re a servant, a fellow servant,
a fellow sinner just happens to be in a position of service
to others. This is what Paul said to Timothy. Second, Timothy
to flee from youthful lusts. And immediately as you read that,
you know what? So many people do. Oh, you know, Timothy may
have had a problem with the pornography. That’s not what he was talking
about. That’s not at all what he was talking about. Flee youthful
lust and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace with all
who call on the Lord from a pure heart, but refuse. And here comes the lust. This
is our tendency as young men. This is what we really yearn
for. Refuse foolish and ignorant speculations,
knowing that they produce quarrels. That’s the sin of a young man,
isn’t it? We just want to fight about everything. And the Lord’s bond servant must
not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient
when wronged with gentleness, correcting those who are in opposition.
If perhaps God may grant them repentance. Remember, we are
the servants. We’re not God himself. We can’t
change hearts. We can teach. We can be kind. We can love them. If perhaps
God grants them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth,
and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of
the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.” Isn’t
that the role of a shepherd? Isn’t that how you want your
shepherd to function? Isn’t that how we should function
with one another? Patient and loving and kind. Long-suffering. Peter said the same thing essentially
in a positive way. First Peter five, he said, I
exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder, a witness
of the sufferings of Christ, partaker of the glory that is
to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising
oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly according to the
will of God and not for sordid gain. You see, that’s what that’s
what taints the ministry so often. is these men, these so-called
shepherds, false teachers really, who are only in it for the money.
And you can see it by how they treat the sheep. No wonder Peter
ends with this little thing. He says, nor yet as lording it
over those allotted to your charge. Are they in your charge? Are
you responsible for them? Absolutely. Do you lord it over
them as some kind of little God? Peter says, no, don’t do that. And why? What’s the big deal?
Jesus here says one day you’re going to have to give an account
for that. Do you know that you’re going to have to give an account
for how you spoke and raised your children, how you spoke
and dealt with your fellow church members, how you spoke and dealt
with your neighbor, your Christian neighbor, your Christian friends,
even those who don’t know Christ. Every word, every word will answer
for. First and foremost, pastors are
one that just shakes me to the ground every time I read it.
Obey your leaders and submit to them. And that’s the part
that pastors love to quote, right? Obey your leaders and submit
to them. Why? For they keep watch over your
souls. I’ll never forget the day that
we did the test, right? The pregnancy test and found
out that God was giving us a child. And I think immediately we both
fell on our knees and prayed because now we were responsible
for another soul. It’s a humbling thing. Imagine
a church full of them. There are times when I’m thankful
for a small church. Obey your leaders and submit
to them. Why? For they keep watch over your souls as those who
will give an account. Not maybe. Not it’s very likely. Not like they do at the airport
where it’s a random thing. Every tenth pastor through. Okay,
how’d you do? Everyone will give an account. And it’s no different for you
people. It’s no different. Every one of us is going to one
day stand face to face with God. and answer to how we lived, how
we treated others. Verse 46, the master of that
slave will come on a day when he does not expect him in an
hour when he does not know he will cut him in pieces and assign
him in a place with unbelievers. The only way you can do anything
with this passage in light of the totality of Scripture is
to say he’s assigned a place with unbelievers because he’s
an unbeliever. Matthew says he’s assigned a place with hypocrites
because he’s a hypocrite. He’s a hypocritical unbeliever
that’s put where he belongs once and for all. He’s found to be a phony, a sham,
a false teacher. He’s in service for all the wrong
reasons. And finally, God carries the day. There’s a last little belonging
here. that belongs to the servant, and that is the servant’s maxim. If you will, his life verse,
his overarching charge. Look there at the bottom of 48.
From everyone, from everyone who has been given much, much
will be required. And to whom they entrusted much
of him, they will ask all the more. You say, well, now I’m off the
hook because I really haven’t been given all that much. I perhaps
have some gifts, but I don’t really know what they are yet.
Haven’t discovered them. I don’t think God was exceedingly
generous to me personally. Oh, really? We’re called, we know, to be
responsible with our gifts. We know that we’re called to
be faithful in them, faithful in our various callings, faithful
to serve one another, to pray for one another. Let’s think,
though, what have we been given? Because Ephesians 1 lays out
for us the blessings that a believer has received.
And Ephesians 1 starts at the moment of eternity past and proceeds
forward. That in eternity past, God set
His electing love on you and He drew you to Himself and He
began to bestow every spiritual blessing upon you. Is that nothing
in your sight? Is that not a prompter to you
to serve the Almighty God with everything that’s in you? Because
if Ephesians 1 doesn’t do it for you, nothing will. Not even
Ephesians 4, which is even more direct. If Ephesians 1 doesn’t
awaken our drowsy hearts and call us to enthusiastic and joyful
service of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, nothing will because
your heart is dead. But there is another passage.
And for those of us that are sparked to life by that very
thought, that God has graced us with every spiritual blessing
in the heavenlies. First of all, calling us to salvation
and then equipping us with the Spirit and all the blessings
that come with it. To that, he adds Ephesians 4,
that God has graced each one of you with gifts. And it’s true,
sometimes it’s hard to identify, but we know that we can pray.
We know that we can serve. We know that there are things
that we can do, and sometimes we don’t know because we don’t
try. We’re timid. We’re unfaithful.
We’re very much like this servant. It’s a long time. I got a while.
I have some time. Let me just hide this talent
under a rock for a while. I’ll come back and get it in
a bit. We’ll try it. We’ll try it later. We’ll try it when I’m
40. We’ll try it when I’m 50. We’ll
try it later. We put it off and we put it off
until there is no more putting. And the Lord comes back at a
time when we did not expect. And it’s sudden. It’s a rude
awakening to us, isn’t it? The very thought of the Lord
coming, as we said, maybe it’s today. What if it were today?
One Puritan said this, said Christianity is a busy trade. If we look up
to God, what a multitude of things are required in a Christian to
carry himself as he should do. A spirit of faith, a spirit of
love, a spirit of joy and delight in Him above all. If we look
to men, there are duties for a Christian to his superiors,
a spirit of subjection. To equals, we must show a spirit
of love. To inferiors, a spirit of piety
and bounty. If we look to Satan, We have
commandments to resist Him and watch against the tempter. If
we look to the world, it’s full of snares. There must be a great
deal of spiritual watchfulness that we need not be surprised.
If we look to ourselves, there are required many duties to carry
our vessels in honor, to walk within the compass of the Holy
Ghost, to preserve the peace of our consciences, to walk answerably
to our worth as being sons of God and joint
heirs with Christ. The Christian must dispense with
himself in no sin. He must be a vessel prepared
for every good work. He must refrain from no service
that God calls him to. Therefore, the life of the Christian
abounds with honorable and profitable employment. What a great privilege
we have. We have life itself. God has
reached down, as we read from Psalm 40 today, and plucked us
out of the pit. And if that isn’t the motivation
beyond all others to get us to serve Christ, nothing will help. But it is a great motivation. Let’s pray. Oh, gracious God, we know in
our hearts we haven’t served you as we ought. There’s so many
things we could have accomplished and so many things laid as it
were before us. Opportunities and privileges.
And Lord, so often we’re seen as this slave. Putting it off. Living it up. Abusing others
in the process. Oh Lord, what could be more abusive
than just failing to serve others? and care for them and love them
in a practical way. Grant us the grace of repentance
and the grace of an enthusiastic heart that rises and serves for
Your glory, Lord, in Jesus’ name, Amen. Thank you very much.