Turn back in your Bibles to Luke
chapter 12. Luke chapter 12. The message
today is really around what our elder was hinting at as he was talking
about serving God and how we all are gifted. The title of
our message is The Watchful Servant. But as I was looking at the text,
I said, I should have said the faithful and the wise servant.
But to be faithful and wise, you have to be watchful. And
if you have your outline, you can follow me. I want to kind
of establish this by making an observation. When it comes to
negotiating joyful and pleasant and fun times in our life, when
it comes to negotiating what it means to enjoy life with the
real and important non-negotiable responsibilities of life. The tension of being able to
know what it means to enjoy life, but at the same time, recognize
that you and I are called to responsibility. The ability to
hold those two together appropriately is called wisdom. It's called
wisdom. The ability to enjoy life without
ever negating or setting aside or finding yourself abrogating
your call and responsibility in this world is called wisdom. It's the art and science of life. The ability to enjoy life but
at the same time know your calling and stay in your calling and
appreciate your calling and do what God has called you to do
is called wisdom. The ability to enjoy life and
to take those measurable and discrete periods that God often
gives us where we can have a time of reprieve and refreshment and
rest. to recuperate and to recover
from the toilsome nature of life while at the same time making
sure that we maintain the obligations of our calling. the call to be
whatever we are called to be and not diminish that call or
set that call aside or cause that call to be inferior to us
wanting to have a fun, fun time is wisdom. And I do want to say
this. I've said it a couple of times
now. I just want to drive that home. If you want to really be
a person that is fulfilled, Balance between wanting to enjoy life
and fulfill the calling that God has called you to. Balance
the tension between, well, you know, this is my time or whatever
phraseology you use and the reality that God has called you to a
purpose. Balance that time because very
few people know how to do that. Very few people know how to manage
their time. how to negotiate their time,
how to prioritize their life. That's what we're gonna talk
about today. Please understand, you are called for a purpose. God has a task for you to perform. And for many of us, ladies and
gentlemen, that task is a multiple task. Pastor, I don't know what
my calling is. Well, are you a male? Yes, I
am. Well, you have a calling as a
man to operate out of your manhood at whatever stage God has called
you into. Let's say you are a single young
man as of yet not burdened with the challenges and blessings
and joys of marriage. Learn to operate out of your
calling as a man right now. Ask God to help you understand
fully what it means to be blessed as a single man. Do you understand
how you have it, how well your life is to be a single, young,
strapping, healthy buck? Ask God to help you take that
gift and employ it to his glory while as yet you didn't get trapped
by a sister. Because once you get trapped,
the whole thing changes. And you sisters who are single,
please understand the blessing. of being single while as yet
you haven't been called to that highest of symbolic calling of
bearing children and reproducing according to the mandate. And
understand the beauty, please, of your distinctive calling as
a female. We will be dealing with the gospel
and sexuality in about four weeks. And listen, our world is so messed
up when it comes to gender roles It's critical that if you're
going to be happy, you're going to be happy when you discover
who you are, according to God, and how God has called you to
operate in your calling at the different levels at which he's
called you. When you become an adult, you young people that
are just, you can't wait to be grown. Please, you better stay
ungrown as long as you can. Because once you get grown, there
are responsibilities that are going to be laid upon you that
you probably won't be able to negotiate without the help of
your elders. And so please, what I'm getting
at here as I go into the text, I want you to understand because
I'm worried about my present generation. I'm very worried
about the dissipation, the lack of focus, the lack of clarity
and the lack of intent. intentionality when it comes
to your life. I think a whole of a lot of our brothers and
sisters at all areas of life with the exclusion of little
children are amiss when it comes to our time. I think we're wasting
our time. And I'm afraid that if we don't
take heed to the word of God and the message of Christ here
about our calling, that many of us will miss the mark when
we have to stand before him, having heard the word and fail
to believe what you were told. I'm afraid for us on that regard. I am God's servant to tell you
what you don't want to hear. Okay? And I'm going to let you
know, it's very important for you to take heed to God's word. It's very important that we do
that. We're going to enjoy life. We're going to really enjoy life
as we do life with God's highest objective in view. And with that,
I want to ask a question. Here it goes. I'm not sure. Maybe you can tell me. You don't
have to tell me personally, but just in your mind, do you carry
a sense of responsibility an obligation towards Jesus Christ
for saving you? Isn't that a good question? Is there a necessity in your
soul to not only do the will of God, but to see that the will
of God gets done? Is there in your soul, having
been begotten of God as a child of God, a desire to do the will
of God? But not only that but to see
it get done Does that reign over your mind as an overarching objective
of your life? Remember what our master said
in matthew chapter 5 thy will be done Is it the Fundamental
motive of your life to execute the will of god and is it your
Joyful desire to see it executed everywhere Are you yet persuaded
that the will of God is the best thing for every human being that
apart from the will of God? We now have the reason for most
of the problems we have in life that if we actually could Do
the will of God we would be really happy Do you think like that? Okay, because this kind of thought
pattern Should not be unusual for the Christian It should be
the normal thing that's kind of driving our thinking, regulating
our thoughts. And see, really this kind of
mindset is the mindset of a slave. Of a slave. Do you think like
a slave? Do you think like someone owns
you? But do you own yourself? And
do you dictate what you do and where you go? And even how you
think? Are you carving out your own
life without regards to any higher, superior or authority telling
you what's right and what's wrong, what can be done and what can't
according to your calling and your purpose? You see what our
master is doing actually in the text that we're getting ready
to unpack reminding his disciples of whom he has already said the
kingdom is yours the kingdom is yours my father's good pleasure
didn't we learn this last week without a good message last week
what good because this was gonna hurt a little bit he said the kingdom is already
yours it is your father's good pleasure to be giving you the
kingdom now. You are already experiencing
the kingdom of God. And so continuing that, because
we know, he who hath begun a good work shall also, what? Perform
it unto the day of Jesus Christ. So we already are partakers of
the divine nature. We already are partakers of the
blessed fruit of Christ's work on Calvary. Many of us have been
brought out of darkness into his marvelous light. We are subjects
of grace, aren't we? We are beneficiaries of the enormous,
inestimable treasure of Jesus Christ. Many of us are walking
right now in the authority of the sons of God and delighting
in it, are we not? But we're also fighting a battle
and we also have a mission. I want to drive this home. We
must remain mission-minded. You must not think that you are
here to meander and sort of bump into situations week in and week
out, month in and month out. And then one day just kind of
lay your carcass on the slab and exit out of here without
having accomplished your purpose. Can I talk to you today? It's
very important that you and I understand that when God saves you, watch
this, He saves you so you can get ready to meet Him. He saves you so you can get ready
to meet him. But he also saves you so that
within the course of him calling you out of darkness and him meeting
you in that great day face to face, you can actually be a partaker
of his will. What an amazing privilege to
be sons and daughters of God used by Christ to bring the glory
of God to the human race. Watch this. What a great privilege
it is for you to be a mama. Who knows the grace of God and
raise your children in the truth? What a great privilege it is
for you to be fathers who work hard, hard, hard to provide everything
your children need so that they aren't so distracted by the menial
things of this world that they can see the glory of God in your
headship as a man. Begin to understand something
about how God controls this universe and bestows upon us all the blessings
he does Now listen, I'm talking about the way the thing ought
to be. I'm not talking about the way it is Some of our fathers
are delinquent in a wall And many of our mothers are actually
doing both things at once But you do know it's not supposed
to be that way you you are persuaded of that, right? I And yet God
will bless that too. He has blessed that but what
I am actually doing is speaking into the next generation I am
really worried about my generation, but I'm almost done with my generation.
I'm really worried about the next generation I'm worried about
the next generation because I know they don't hear the gospel I
know it and I know that they aren't actually spoken to specifically
I know that most young people in church are sit there and play
with their iPods and cell phones and text and all that because
the gospel is not targeted to them. I know that. And this is
why for them, they say church is irrelevant because God doesn't
speak to them. God speaks to mom and daddy.
But the gospel is for you, young people. I swear God uses young
people more than he does anybody else. More than he does anybody
else. more than he does anybody else.
You read your Bible when he calls men and women from Genesis to
Revelation. They're young! And he gives them
an understanding and a vision of this enormous purpose for
which he's called them and he graces them to do what they're
called to do. I'm just telling you the truth.
So here's what I want to get across to our young people before
we unpack the text. This is about you too. It's not
about your mom or your daddy, it's about you too. It's about
you too. And so let's work through our
outline and see what we can grasp. The watchful servant, his honor
comes from God. First and foremost, we are told
in verse 37 of Luke chapter 12, these words, verse 37.8, blessed
are those servants whom the Lord, when he comes, shall find what? Watching, watching. Point number one your outline
we will succeed children of God if we heed the exhortation and
give ourselves to the task We will succeed in what Christ has
called us to if we heed the exhortation and give ourselves to the task
See, I I get the sense in this generation We don't we don't
really like to be warned that it's very possible to drift and
miss the boat and be on vacation way longer than we should. And
yet what Christ does, because he cares about his people, is
he lets them know, listen, when you begin to experience the dynamic
of the kingdom of God, when the Holy Ghost is given to you, and
your gifts are discovered, and you are actually operating in
your calling, some of you will be preaching, others of you will
be helping, I'll get into that in a moment. Be careful that
you don't drift. because drifting is natural to
all human beings. To stay on course, you have to
watch. To stay on course, you have to
be careful to watch where you are going. You have to frequently
examine yourself as to whether you are staying on point. Isn't
that true in life in general? Can't you set out to do a job
and it's going to take a year or two to do? You look up a year
later and you go, you know what? Man, I'm way behind. Right? Well, because you actually didn't
pay attention in the process of the course to make sure that
your momentum was right and that your projectory was the same.
All of a sudden you are off course. And what our master is saying
to the disciples here is you've got to do three things. Be very
careful. Three things. As I warn you,
be careful to watch. Point number two in your outline.
Here it is. The task itself consists of commitment to the journey. The task itself consists of commitment
to the journey, and this is in verses 33 and 34. Listen to what it says. After
Christ gives the encouraging words that the kingdom is yours,
he says, sell that you have, give alms, provide yourselves
bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that felleth not,
where no thief approaches, neither moth corrupts. Do you guys see
verse 33? Can I help you with that? Here's what he's saying. He's not saying just give away
all your goods He's saying use your good for the glory of god
So that what it may do is redound for you as treasures in heaven
That your resources are to be wasted on needs Are you guys
hearing me? And I watch this now, but if
you are going to be the kind of person that is going to be
a vehicle by which God can use you as an instrument through
which he would allow things to be given to other people, you
have to have an eye, an ear, and a heart that looks for needs. Otherwise, what you will do,
as me and one of my elders talked about this morning, which is
one of the criminal practices here in America and Europe, is
hoard to yourself. You will actually look up and
you will have way too much stuff. I'm not even speaking of material
things I'm just talking about the dynamic in our life of receiving
gifts and resources and blessings and they don't go out in equal
proportion Now the men are the woman that's headed to glory.
Will you hear me? Has no problem giving everything that they have
because what they have doesn't start with them. I It comes from
Him from whom all blessings flow. And when you know that you are
merely a vehicle by which those things come, they can't stop. You can't out give God. Listen,
you can never out give God. You can't open yourself up so
wide in the benevolence and generosity of your character that you look
around and God says, you got to stop a minute, brother, because
I got to build up more resources to give to you. You can't do
it. God helped this message to come
across. He told his disciples, when you
start your journey, don't be hoarding. Because psychologically,
what it will mean is you're not trusting me. It means that in
the course of your journey, what you're doing is safeguarding
your physical life in a way that intimates that you don't trust
me. I mean, read the text for yourself. Isn't that kind of
daunting? don't store up for yourself anything and in fact
what you have give it away you know what we call that a walk
of faith pure faith and the God who called you keeping you in
the process he says don't provide for yourselves bags which wax
old treasures in the heavens that fail where thieves can come
and steal and mothed up corrupt for where your treasure is there
will your heart be also look at verse 35 getting ready to
get into it let your loins be girded about and your lights
burning now for those of us in the 21st century we don't quite
get that you know what that is that is the idea of being prepared
at all times to move Let your loins be girded. It was a term
in that Roman culture and also in the Palestinian culture where
men wore what appeared to be often dresses, sashes that were
long garments that when it was a time to do three things, three
things were about to be done. When they had to run, they would
have to take that thing and bring it up and girt a belt around
them so they can get the running. Gird up your loins so you can
be ready to run. That was one thing. The other
thing was gird up your loins, gird up your loins so you can
be ready to fight, to fight. You're in a warfare
and there are some adversaries and obstacles which you will
have to fight to overcome. and you can't do it if your garment
is down to your toes and you're relaxing and are not prepared
to fight. The third thing is gird up your
loins so you can always be prepared to serve. Do you guys see that? To run,
to fight, to serve. The man or the woman who understands
that commandment, that imperative, girding up their loins, really
is the lady or the gentleman or the husband or the wife or
the family or the church that's ready. That's really what the
word means. Be ready to watch, be ready to
fight, be ready to run, be ready to serve, be ready to serve. This is the attitude that he's
placing on the disciples. And of course, you and I know
when you read the book of Acts and the epistles, There was nothing
about the disciples that even indicated that they were at a
leisure mode. Isn't that right? They were always
serving. They were always fighting. And they were always running.
Running is a metaphor for preaching the gospel. That was an Old Testament
term for the prophets who were given the message as an ambassador
from God to take it from one region to another region. Blessed
are the feet of those that preach good tidings, that publishes
peace upon the mountains. They are running to bring good
news to men and women about Christ. That's the idea. So what God
is calling you and I to is to be careful that we don't fall
prey to unloosening our garments by not girding up. Ladies and
gentlemen, be careful to watch, be careful to run, be careful
to travel. That's the idea, be careful to
serve. Point number three in your outline,
it's very clear. And this is something that our
Lord does a lot and Paul expands on it frequently. Apostasy for
many is certain. Apostasy for many is certain.
I want you to mark these words. Some of you may not know what
the term means. The word apostasy means to depart from your calling,
to depart from the gospel, to leave your vocation, to simply
abandon what God has called you to. That's what apostasy means.
And I want you to look at the illustration in our text around
that and regard the words of our Master to you and I. Verse
45, are you there? He says, but, and if that servant
says in his heart, my Lord delayed his coming, do you see that?
And shall begin to beat the men servants and maid servants and
to eat and to drink and to be drunken. The Lord of that servant
will come in a day when he is not what? He's not looking. He's not looking. He's not watching. He's not expecting the Lord to
come. He's not anticipating the great
reward of Christ's return in him being with Christ for all
eternity. Now, what happened? Somewhere in the process of the
call, the beginning of the call and the journey, he actually,
she actually, they began to surmise in their mind, you know what? Jesus ain't coming. Or and Well,
if he comes, I don't think it's going to be in my lifetime, which
is amounting to the same thing. Jesus ain't coming. And what
that kind of thinking does, as our Lord warns, is this. It starts
to cause you subtly to reprioritize your life. Are you with me now? Watch this. I want you to hear
me now. When God called me at 18 years old, I'm 18, don't know
nothing about life like you didn't. But I told you that's when God
calls people. And one of the urgencies that he established
in my heart upon conversion and you who were newly converted,
you know, those days when God called you, one of the urgencies
he placed in my heart was Christ is coming soon. Christ is coming
soon. You better get about your master's
business. And it was that urgency that
drove me to serious commitment to Christ. It actually informed
all my decisions. It basically categorized and
prioritized what I would do and what I would not do. Now, I want
you to hear me now. It actually helped me find that
the most important thing in my life is what matters to God. See, it gets back to the question.
If you know that you are a slave, and you have a master, the real
important thing is to know your master's will and simply want
to do your master's will. See, I'm not talking nebulous
things. You may not know it, but everyone who is saved has
a master. And that master is Christ. And
because he is your master, your job is to do your master's will. And that's going to dictate your
life. It's been 30, almost 34 years for me now, since God saved
me. To this hour, I am more concerned
about his return now than I was 34 years ago. Can I tell you
why? Because what I have discovered
is that God's word is right. Every one of his works are done
in truth. And when God warns us about the subtle, incremental
degrees of departure from the truth, that multitudes whom you
knew in the faith would no longer be in the faith, I'm talking
people you love, are just as indifferent and apathetic and
cold and presumptuous and hardened in their hearts to Christ today
than they were when I was 18. I had no idea how time could
steal the tenderness of a heart and cause it to become hard towards
God. I had no idea what apostasy was.
You and I, when we hear the term apostasia, we think in its theoretical
terms of just standing away, because that's what it means
to get away from the gospel. This is what Peter, James and
John did. The Lord had to teach the disciples that when they
would do ministry, they would need God all the time. They all
thought they were confident. No, Lord, we're not going to
leave you. And when the Lord was taken to be crucified, they
all left him. What they did, they stood away
from him. They got that. No, we don't know
him. No, we don't know him. Are you guys hearing me? And
here's what I'm saying. It's happening before my eyes
right now. I'm seeing it happen in people's
lives. And I'm saying, Lord, what are we doing? And you know
what he's saying? You're not listening to my word.
You're not paying attention to the scriptures. and he's made
it very clear to many of us after 37 years now that our hearts
are going to break constantly as we watch men and women harden
to the gospel who once loved the gospel are now enemies of
the cross who once loved the word of God now don't want to
hear it at all I mean at all who once just couldn't wait to
be in the house of God to be under the word of God in the
fellowship of the saints being influenced by the kingdom of
God, righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost, are trapped
by this world system. And they are so hardened in their
hearts, they can't even admit it. I'm just telling you where
we are. So you know, when somebody loves
you, you know what they do? They warn you. And they warn
you. And they warn you. And then when
you have crossed that line, you no longer hear the warning anymore.
Now you are deceived. You think you're all right with
God. Because nobody's telling you, you way out of pocket. And
your conscience has been seared with a hot iron so that your
conscience can't even anymore blow the alarm. It's not that
you don't know, it's just that you're deceived. You know what
deceived is? You have allowed a lie to actually
tell you that you are in a safe place when you're not. Is it
all right for me to talk to you like that today? Can I do that?
Because many of us know the danger of that pull on our own hearts
and we see it in the lives of our family, don't we? And I'm
just trying to help you understand the inner mechanisms of it as
our text is explaining it. Our Master says there are two
kinds of servants in our text, the blessed servant and that
wicked servant. You know, the Bible is very simple,
isn't it? You know, the Bible is super simple in that it really
just will categorize the whole human race into two categories.
That keeps it simple, doesn't it? I mean, it's more complex
than that, but it's really simple. Are you a blessed servant or
are you a wicked servant? See what I'm getting at? These
are the things that are being unfolded in our text. And it's
so critical for you and I to hear it. Apostasy for many is
certain. And the matter here, listen to
me, listen to what our Lord says in verse 45. that servant says
in his what he never openly says I don't believe the gospel anymore
he never openly says you know I just don't I don't have that
zeal anymore he never openly says I that, you know, I'm done
with this zeal and commitment. He never openly says there is
a great reward for those who by faith diligently seek him. He never says it by words, but
his actions indicate otherwise. Are you with me? And so our Lord
says you can know that servant by these manifestations. Here's the first. He or she or
they begin to separate themselves from the mature Christian body.
Because there's a difference between hanging out with mature
believers and hanging out with new believers who don't quite
see what they should be seeing in you. You drift from the mature
believers and you actually start hanging out more with unbelievers. He says they began to eat and
drink with the drunkards. Isn't that what the text says?
Now that's a radical shift from first serving the kingdom of
God with its priorities in your life. And now here you're really
now, you know what you're doing? You're partying more than you
are serving. See, we got it backwards now,
don't we? Watch this now. See, remember what I said earlier?
We have to negotiate how to enjoy life, right? at the same time
maintain our calling. Isn't that what I said? So here
we're not talking about an extremism of sort of cultic measures where
all we do is labor for the kingdom. I wish God gave me grace to do
that. I wish all I could ever do is serve God. I wish my body didn't get weak.
I wish my mind didn't get frazzled from time to time where I needed
the downtime. I wish I could share the gospel
everywhere I went and be ready, don't you? But God knows our
weakness, right? But we must never let our weakness
become an excuse now to depart from the living God, because
this is what's going on. That person, that family, that
couple, that man, that woman, that church now is engaging in
the frolic of life with those who know how to have fun way
more than the people who are about their father's business. Stay with me. So you have a category
of people now who are called that wicked servant, who actually
prepares his 24-hour day around his will, not the master's will. Around his or her or their goals,
not what is the will of him that has sent me. And our master says
this individual eats and drinks with the drunkards and here's
another manifestation not only are they more comfortable in
the principles of the world which is the lust of the eye how you
look and how the world looks and how you look to the world
how you look how the world looks and how you look to the world
now your measure is the world it's not God it's the world the
lust of the eye the lust of the flesh are you ready how you feel
how the world feels, and how the world dictates or determines
how you feel. See, that is the great idol in
the present generation. It's called psychology. How you
feel. That's the lust of the flesh
meeting the carnal gratifications of our ego as the ultimate criteria
for existence rather than it being subordinate to the will
of God. Are you following me? All the labor of man is for his
belly. Third one, the pride of life. God So one of the things I see that
will get a hold to a Christian after he or she becomes smarter
than God Some of you have fallen for this
and I need to tell the truth Saints you've fallen for thinking
that is your right to be healthy and wealthy, wise, beautiful,
successful, all that stuff. Am I telling the truth? If somehow
you thought intuitively, really God means this and not that. And the next thing you're off,
you're off to the idol of what is called the pride of life.
The devil has made this available to the whole human race as part
of this whole, what I would call just a cruise ship to hell. Isn't it a good analogy? a cruise
ship to hell. And it's critical for the Christian
church to understand, listen, the only reason we need to be
on that cruise ship is we're doing espionage missions to find
out where the elect are so we can get them on the raft boats
at night and let that raft boat down and get back to the kingdom. Isn't that good? How can I strategize to get in
this business? How can I strategize to get in
this company? How can I strategize to get in
this organization, to get in this program, to get in that
program and become salt and light in the program and then exit
after I have brought into captivity those whom God is calling out? Am I telling the truth? That's
what God is saying. See, I'm not telling you don't
be in the world. I'm telling you you're going
to hell if you are of the world. We got to be here. And we have
to spread ourselves according to our gifts and be where God
wants us to be. There are sinners in all kinds
of pits. And you got to be able to get
in and what? Get out. And the apostasy marks this other
category. I want you to get it now. But
if that servant says in his heart, my Lord delays his coming and
shall begin to be the men servants and made servants. Do you see
it? Now I've watched this happen for years and I'm going to tell
you how this goes. Watch this now. You come to church
because God has made the church with all of her flaws to be the
realm and habitation of the Spirit of God by which the Kingdom of
God is manifested and operating. The Kingdom of God is righteousness,
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. The Kingdom of God is the presence
of Christ the King by His Spirit in the life of the church, not
a building, people. The kingdom of God is resident
in our heart. It's resident in the gospel.
It's resident in our mouths. We speak with our mouths the
things of the kingdom so men and women get a vision of the
reality of the kingdom. Are you with me so far? And we
take delight because we don't all know everything to hear the
kingdom spoken by anyone and everyone. What a joy to hang
out with brothers and sisters in the context of fellowship
and their heart's desire is to know more about God. And they
actually have the ability to say, hey, sis, hey, bro, let's
talk about God. Let's talk about God. I already
said it before. Great minds made by God talk
about God. Average minds underutilized,
though made by God, talks about things. You know, when you're hanging
out with people and all they talk about are things, don't that
stuff put you to sleep? Stay with me. And small minds
that are, let's say, challenged, talk about people. You know,
you meet with that person, call himself a Christian, all they
got to do is talk about people. You need to hurry up and get
away from them. Because they're only using like 1% of 1% of 1%
of their brain. Okay? Follow me. There is this uncanny thing that
happens with people that are going apostate. Where the kingdom
of God is a wonderful place to be, but after a while, they don't
want to be there. And you know what they start
doing? They start beating, and abusing the people that are there. Let me help you. See, because
you won't admit that your problem is that you have broken fellowship
with God and you're mad at God, you start blaming your brothers
and sisters in Christ for your discontentment with God. After
all, if the brothers and sisters in Christ would act right, you'd
be in church with us. You spend more time with us.
You would hang out with us. If they would act more right,
like you. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And so what you start doing is finding ways to beat the men
servant and maid servants of God because you really now are
departing from the gospel. The church that was beautiful
to you, is now ignominious, is now ugly and odious and you don't
like it. You know what you've done? You've
deceived yourself. You've deceived yourself. You've
drifted away and you cut yourself off from every resource of grace.
You maybe got upset because one brother actually had the audacity
to love you and come to you and say, hey, bro, you know what,
man, I ain't seen you in a while. What you up to? None of your
business. Our sister. Hey, sis, what's
going on? We haven't hung in a while. What
what you up to? Well, what you trying to get
in my business? No, I ain't trying to get in your business. I just
are you hearing what I'm saying? This is how subtle it is. And
here's what makes it easy. I want you to hear me now. Here's
what makes it easy. It's a culture that the world
has dictated that says, don't judge me. So what it basically does is
facilitate an exit strategy for professing believers to go to
hell without a whole lot of resistance. So I'm going to give you the
right and permission. It's already yours. I'm just
being rhetorical to love your neighbor. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? To call them to when you see
them on the street and you know, you haven't seen them for six
months or a year. Say, hey, can I talk to you for 1 minute? Smile.
You know, be nice. Smile. Pull him to the sides.
Hold their hand. You know how you women do it
to hold each other. How you doing, sis? Now, sis, come on now. Now, I know you haven't been
in the fellowship of the saints in a while. And listen, ain't
nothing better than being in the fellowship of the saint.
Watch it. Where you at? And get right in
their business and say, I love you. Because that's what we're
called to do. Otherwise, we watch them go to
hell and we have to ask ourselves, do we love our brothers and sisters? Am I making some sense? I'm just
being very practical about a situation that I know is prevalent in our
culture. It's prevalent in our culture,
a departure from the faith. And our Lord would not be telling
his disciples this if he didn't meant for us to know it. He may
he plainly says they will eat and drink with the drunkards.
they will beat the men services and maid service now this is
the preacher to not just the members in the church the preacher
to watch this now when the preacher has not been able to achieve
his goal in the ministry as if his goal is what's the ministry
about and when he hasn't been able to get you to pay enough
into his ministry so that his coffers build up enough for him
to be blessed of God. Then he starts beating you up
with tithes and offerings and giving with threats and curses
and serving because you are not doing it according to his expectations. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And he himself also in his downtime as if there is any downtime for
the real preacher But I mean, I have heard of pastors, they
spend a lot of time on the golf course at the country club. I mean, the pastors that are
doing it big, you know, these big churches around here with
five and 10,000. I know what's going on with their
pastors, believe you me. And the members in that church
do too. And he dogs them because it's a pyramid scheme, a Ponzi
scheme, and he beats them up with legalism and self-righteousness.
in all kinds of weird agendas invading their conscience when
their conscience should be invaded by one thing, the word of God. So the preacher doesn't get away
with this text either. In fact, it's primarily to the
preachers. But I made an application to
you and I. Because you and I cannot get away from our responsibility
as believers in Christ. And listen, let me say this before
I go to my next couple of points and shut it down It's not because
it just in case those of you who are new don't know me as
pastor Jesse I'm the pastor of grace for 16 17 years now My
elders been with me many of our elders and our deacons have been
together with us 5 10 15 years we've been together a long time
and We are utterly amazed at the grace of God in our life
and in the life of our ministry So when you listen to me and
my elders and our deacons teach and preach wherever we teach
and preach, we are blessed men and we know it. We are exceedingly
blessed and we are delightful that God would so humbly use
us the way he does. So I'm not talking to you like
there's a level of expectation that I want from you that you're
not meeting. I'm happy at our growth. I'm
happy at our development. What I'm always worried about
is when I read that book and I go, uh-oh, we're not done yet. Are you hearing
me? I go, uh-oh, we're not done yet. So my job is to keep sowing into
the spirit substantive revelation of the will and glory of God
that would help you escape the facade and delusion of hypocrisy
so that you keep it real with God. Keep it real with God. Keep it real with God. The thing
that will set you up for hell is church without Christ. Four signs that you are in a
state of apostasy. You have virtually no time in
your life for the Word of God. You're walking in darkness. I
don't care how wise you are in the world, you're walking in
darkness. When this book is not open and you're hearing and viewing
every day, you are walking in darkness. You cannot see your
way. You cannot see the devil. You
cannot see the deception of your own heart without the word of
God. It's the light that helps you see the darkness that you
desire to be draped in. That's point number one. The other thing is no fellowship
with solid Christians. Hebrews 10 verse 24 and 25, forsake
not the fellowshipping of yourselves with one another. See, in the
koinonia, which we're talking about on Fridays, you know what
happens in the koinonia? The lights are cut on. Am I telling
the truth? And when the lights are cut on,
God gets to talk to you. In the general fellowship of
the brothers that come together, sisters that come together around
the world. See, you know, if you do fellowship
right, there ain't nowhere you can hide. because your loved
one's going to just say something right there on the spot and you
know God is going to be in it. Am I telling the truth? You're
going to be sitting there and watch this. Whoa, he spied me
out. And if you're careful, you won't let your loved one know
that was God. But if you're humble and walking
in the light, you'll say, thank you. God just spoke to me very
plainly through you. That's how God works to can keep
each other warm warm to one when he falls because when he falls
there's no one there to pick you up and a three-fold card
it ain't getting broken easily and you know this is one of the
reasons why in our present culture you don't see many christians
who are committed to other christians this is the lone ranger mentality
again you're isolated you're all by yourself you're all you're
all by yourself You can't tell yourself how many close believing
brothers and sisters that you have in your life that have the
ability to know what you're doing most of the time. You have incrementally
set yourself up to be deceived. This is a good message. You don't
know it. You don't spend any time in the
Word. You depart from solid Christian fellowship. You actually have
an aversion to solid preaching. Don't you know him? Man, I heard
a word the other day, the preacher was on it. You want a CD? Nope. Or if you're hypocritical, you
know what you do? Sure, give it to me. Take it, throw it on
your counter. You had no intentions of listening
to it. Fourth one, you are not ready nor available
for the service of God. You're too busy. The world got
you. Are you hearing me? You have
no, thank you sister. You have no desire for the word. you have no fellowship with mature
believers, you have an aversion to God-anointed preaching, and
you are consumed with this life so that you are not ready or
available for service. If you were right with God, Psalm
1 verses 1 and 2 would have some influence in your life. Blessed
is the man or the woman or the family or the church who walks
not in the counsel of the ungodly, who does not stand in the way
of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. It's what we
call the double infinitive. It's a verb form that says they
never walk in the counsel of the ungodly. They never stand
in the way of sinners. They never sit in the seat of
the scornful because they're too busy about their father's
business. But their delight is in the law of the Lord, the gospel
of Christ, the word of God. And it is their constant measure
to be meditating in it day and night and day. And as a consequence,
they become rooted and grounded as a tree planted by the rivers
of water, who brings forth fruit for the glory of God. For the
glory of God, their leaf never withers and whatever they do
prospers because the priority of their life is the kingdom
of God. Somebody told me a tree is a
real enigma because it's the one thing that appears to be
doing nothing and getting blessed all over the place. But he also said, don't be deceived.
The labors of a tree in the one place in which it's situated,
because you got to be situated by God and he's got to situate
you by a source, a water source by which that tree can now meet
its full potential. The labor of a tree is underneath
the ground. Unless you have spiritual eyes,
you cannot see the labor of a tree. The tree labors in that one place
in the calm coolness of its nature. And the roots go down deep, toiling,
looking for the water. It draws the water from miles
away up into its trunk and body and branches and leaves bearing
fruit. Someone said the tree, a large
tree, will labor to the equivalent of a man climbing a 10-foot ladder
or staircase with 150 buckets of water on both sides. He goes up, pours the water. He comes down, he gets more water. He goes up, pours the water. 150 times, that's 300 buckets
of water, right? In one day. This is how much labor a tree
puts in to be fruitful. Do you know what I'm getting
at? That to be fruitful is not an accident. And to be fruitful
is not to run around helter-skelter all over the Timbuktu doing things
aimlessly. To be fruitful means to go down!
Go down! Go down! Go down deep with God
so that you bear fruit upward to his glory. That's why you don't see many
fruitful trees. Point number five. Let's wrap this up and
go home. I was tired. I'm not tired now. The reward of faithfulness is
stupendous. I never get over the analogy
in our text. I'm just gonna read it, talk
to us for about five minutes about what's on my mind with
this. So he tells me in verse 37, these words, blessed are those
servants whom the Lord, when he comes, shall find what? Truly, I say unto you, that the
Lord shall gird himself up. Do you get it? Do you see the
double entendre? Do you see how he tells us to
first gird up labor? Work, serve, because there's
a day coming when you get to rest and I will gird up and come
and serve you. I'm stuck. I'm stuck. Because I cannot imagine the
God of the universe, the glorious triune Godhead, the splendid
effulgence of this glorious being who is everywhere present, impeccable,
holy, righteous, just, taking the time to serve me for serving
him. But he says it more than once.
And once is enough for me, even though I can't understand it.
I know what it tells me, and I'll just share it with you.
Somehow in the weakness of my fallen nature, God gives me promises. When He doesn't have to. When
all that He has done for me is enough. To have eternal life
is enough. To be redeemed is enough. To
be saved is enough. To be sanctified is enough. To think God's thoughts after
him is enough. To be used by God is enough. To be headed to glory is enough.
To be elect is enough. To be justified is enough. To be grounded is enough. To
serve is enough, let alone for him to say, when you're done,
I'm going to serve you. Other than what is teaching me
is this. Our master takes so much delight
in the service of his people down here because he knows the
hell that they have to go through for staying committed to the
cause of the gospel that he promises us he will never forget. Never, ever, ever forget. Because
God can't forget whatever God doesn't want to forget. Are you
hearing what I'm saying? He will never forget for all
eternity your labor of love or work of faith that you do towards
the same in every place. He will never forget it. God
always rewards the labors of his servants. That's just the
way God is. You can try to throw it off all
you want to. He's still going to reward it because that's his
nature. And can I tell you why as I close?
God takes great delight in the suffering of his people for his
glory sake because he has chosen by that labor to save men and
women out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. It's worth
it for us to serve God. Am I telling the truth? It's
worth it for us to serve God because God has chosen this means
to save sinners. It's worth it for you to be maligned
for God. It's worth it for you to be persecuted
for God's sake. It's worth it for you to be separated
from people for Christ's sake. It's worth it for your children
not to understand you right now for Christ's sake. It's worth
it for your spouse not to understand you right now for Christ's sake. It's worth it because should
God touch them, they get what you have. And here's the other
reason why it is worth it for us to serve him. I want you to
get this now because it allows us to model him who sat in glory
before the world began. occupying no space other than
the space of their own glorious being. Happy, content, complacent
with themselves in the perfection of fullness and self-sufficiency. Totally happy with themselves,
choosing out of their own prerogative to make a universe and create
human beings who would bear his image whom they knew would also
fall because of their prideful arrogance against his holiness,
who chose before he made them to have the second person of
the Godhead come down, come down, come down, humble himself, be
found in fashion like a man, was made in the form of a servant,
a doulos, a slave, a slave. It was a slave that saved you. It was a slave that saved you. It was a slave who took your
place that saved you. It was a slave that bore the
wrath of God that saved you. It was a slave who had the price
to redeem you off the slave block that redeemed you. It was a slave
to Jehovah who raised you from the dead. It was God's slave
who redeemed you and I from all iniquity, gave us eternal life,
and has promised us immutable, unchangeable, eternal, incomprehensible,
blessings and promises for all eternity. It was a slave who
did that. It was the only wise and faithful
slave who did that for us. It is on that basis that by his
grace, we should do that for him. Amen.