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[0:00] 1 Corinthians 12 verse 3! Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus!

[0:30] Jesus is the Lord! Some ministries just say Jesus is Lord but in fact it's more than that isn't it?

[0:43] Jesus is the Lord. I know when I was a younger Christian we were doing some outreach work and we were putting together a sign, a banner, a big banner and we intended to put Jesus is Lord and then an older Christian and mature believer pointed out this verse that's much more than that.

[1:07] He is the Lord and that's something we can take to heart. He is the Lord. And what does that mean? What does that mean for you and me?

[1:20] If He is the Lord then you are His servant. If He is the Lord, the Master, you are His servant.

[1:31] And Luke 16 verse 13 our Lord says, No servant can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.

[1:45] He cannot serve God and mammon. And of course we know that we cannot have two masters. And yet some do serve two masters in our world, don't they? Or they try to.

[1:57] They try to have a foot in both camps. They try to live the Christian life and yet still toy with the world and its toys. But God says we are to serve Him fully, wholeheartedly and committedly.

[2:13] And so this message is really some different verses about serving God, about being His servant and about our Master. And 2 Timothy 2.21 it says, If a man therefore purge himself from these, telling of wicked things, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the Master's use.

[2:39] Or meet or fit for the Master to use. And prepare unto every good work. Are you a vessel unto honour?

[2:51] Are you sanctified, cleansed, made holy by Him? And made fitting, made ready, made meat for the Master to use?

[3:04] And is He your Lord? Is He your Master? This is something that every one of us needs to grapple with and come to that personal decision about and understanding of, is He your Lord?

[3:20] In Colossians 3.24 it says, Knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ.

[3:31] I know I've said it before, like our Indian brethren, in particular Joshua, when he prays he uses the term Master. You know, sometimes we, sometimes carelessly and glibly, almost without thinking what we're really saying, say Lord, don't we?

[3:50] When really what it means is, Master. Master. It's something we shouldn't just glibly use without thinking what we're really saying.

[4:02] Is He your Master? Is He your Master? Or is it just some token phrase, some token word that you use? As we know, our Lord speaks against those who say, Lord, Lord!

[4:15] We've done this and that. Lord, Lord! In some kind of profession of make-believe Christianity, and yet we see that they're not the real thing in the context.

[4:29] And Matthew 9.37 through it says, In part, the Lord says, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few.

[4:40] Pray ye therefore the Lord, or the Master, the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest. He is the Lord of the harvest.

[4:51] He is the Master of the harvest. And our Lord says, Pray! Ask Him to send forth more workers, to send forth more workmen, more workwomen, more labourers into that harvest field.

[5:05] It's a prayer that I think is still valid for us to pray today. It's still something our Lord would say to us as His church, that we should pray that the Lord will send forth more workers, more servants of the Master.

[5:23] And think of it, brothers and sisters, how much you owe Him. How much we owe the Master. We owe all to Him. All is due to Him.

[5:35] Everything. Every blessing comes down from the Father of Lights. And we should trust Him with our life, with our future, with our present. And are you His?

[5:47] It starts as we come to the realisation of our own inadequacy. As we read of the Psalmist in David's Psalm 51 verse 17, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

[6:06] He sees your brokenness. He sees that you're at the end of your own strength. And that's when He can step in and take over, isn't it? And that's when we can really yield to Him, who is the Master, and come into His care and His leading.

[6:23] Some thoughts about being a servant and the service that He is due and how we should give it. Humble service. Our service should be humble. It says, Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.

[6:39] If He is your Master, it calls for humility. When we think, we've got nothing to credit of our own, have we? All of our doing is really, it's only His enabling that helps us do it anyway.

[6:52] It's not anything that we can claim any vain glory for ourselves. Give Him the glory. Give Him your life. Lay down your life. Be willing to be a living sacrifice.

[7:03] And, you know, sometimes when we serve Him, there'll be challenges. I know our brother shared this morning of the intense testing of having to sit at the bedside of suffering saints and seeing people in their last hours, especially when they're not saved.

[7:23] And you see the tragedy of life, and yet it's a service unto Him. As we said earlier today about the Sunday School, that's a ministry. It takes a special kind of person to reach out.

[7:37] And the young people as well, the youth work, all manner of service in the church, in the service of our Lord. It takes that special kind of humility at times, and that stickability too.

[7:55] Because sometimes it's easier just to say, it's too hard for me to do this. And if we're doing it in our own strength, it's no wonder we feel that way, because we can't do it in our own strength.

[8:06] And yet sometimes we can consider too that we're suffering in our ministry, in our serving Him. And yet the Bible says the sufferings of this present time is just a light affliction, isn't it?

[8:20] That is just for a moment, compared to that eternal weight of glory. Don't be discouraged in serving Him. Don't let the discouragement that faces all of us, don't let that hinder you from serving Him.

[8:35] Humility is really the starting point. It's that broken and contrite spirit, that you will not refuse, you will not despise that. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

[8:47] The labourers are few, and the labourers are few still today. There's few labourers, there's few who will stand, there's few who will take a stand when it really counts, and where it really goes against the grain.

[9:04] You know, we heard today also of outreach in the city, where men and women who are seeking to spread the gospel to others, even in our city of Adelaide, the so-called city of churches, is being hindered and blocked by, or sought to be blocked by the authorities.

[9:24] And we need to be grateful for these ones, as they are seeking to be messengers for the Lord. And our message must be delivered. It's still critical.

[9:35] This message must be delivered. And who will deliver it? People just like you and me. Ordinary, everyday, garden variety Christians like you and me. That might feel totally inadequate, and untrained, and ill-equipped, and yet, the labourers are few.

[9:53] And the Lord is praying, He's seeking us to pray, that we would go and deliver the message. Our world needs it, and we should be aggressive with it. We should make no apology for this message.

[10:04] Even though this message might be confronting, where it is called for, we need to confront. Because we need to be holding up those great big stop signs, on the road to help, telling people, danger, wrong way, turn back.

[10:25] And this is what we have to have. So a humility of service, a humble service. And another aspect of the service that we are to give, it's meant to be Christ-like service. In Luke 6, verse 40 it says, The disciple is not above his master, but everyone that is perfect shall be as his master.

[10:43] So you and I, we're called to be like Jesus. We're called to be like our master. To follow the master, the one who's patterned that life that we are to follow, the one who's set the ultimate model of a life that we are to live.

[10:56] We read that for example in Philippians 2, verse 5, where it says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man.

[11:24] Friends, this is the one. He says, follow me. And as Paul said, follow me even as I follow Christ. Let's follow those who are doing what Christ would do, and being what Christ would be, and essentially let us follow Christ.

[11:41] Follow me, he says. The one who was in the form of God, became a servant, took upon him. That form was made in the likeness of man.

[11:55] Think of the attitude of Christ. You know, we can't really fully comprehend who he was, and what he would have been like, what he would have done.

[12:08] And then as we open the gospels, we see his compassion. We see the commitment that he had. We see the love that he demonstrated towards us, even while we were yet sinners.

[12:22] And this attitude, this mindset, it should be our mindset too. It should be our attitude too. The attitude of a servant. To lay aside the glory, the reputation, the trappings of this world that would distract, that would hinder us, and be Christ-like in our service.

[12:41] Our service should be obedient. Obedient. Our Lord again demonstrated that. Even as a young man, as a young child. In Luke 2, verse 49, when they were searching for him, he said, Didn't you know that I must be about my father's business?

[12:59] I must be about my father's business. And like that too, brothers and sisters today, we must be about the father's business. We must be. Time is too short to be distracted, and to be deterred from doing the father's business.

[13:18] And Romans 6, verse 16, it says, Paul writes, Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness.

[13:31] There's an obedience to our service. And it's not an irksome, drudgery kind of obedience, of having to. It's an obedience because we love to. We love to serve him.

[13:42] It's our privilege to be your servant. For every one of you, as you might go about your day by day, in the workplace, in the home place, in the everyday life that you live, that you can obey him.

[13:55] Choose to obey him. Not out of having to, but out of wanting to, out of loving to. Our service should be faithful too. In 1 Corinthians 4, 2, Paul writes, Moreover, it is requiring stewards that a man be found faithful.

[14:11] Faithful. Are you a faithful one? I know we can all have times of lacking faithfulness, myself included. Lacking faithfulness.

[14:22] And yet a servant, a steward, as you are, is called to be faithful. Be faithful. Be one who is faithful. Even in the little things, as our Lord said, those who are faithful in those everyday, kind of insignificant, you know, little ways, God will give you more to be blessed with.

[14:46] If you're faithful in the little things, he will give you more ways to serve him. And it starts with those little things, doesn't it? Sometimes the little things are the ones nobody else wants to do.

[14:58] But we're meant to be servants, and so we should be alert to even the little things that others might count, oh, that's beneath me, to do such a thing. Another way to serve is to have joyful service.

[15:10] In Psalm 102, 100 verse 2, the psalmist says, Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing.

[15:24] Our service is a glad service. It's a joyful service. It's a privilege and joy. It gives us a gladness in our heart. I know our brother shared this morning, his going about in visitation work, in seeing sick people, and how there was a gladness there, the joy that he saw, and it made the sufferings of his own life seeing of no consequence, that he was just about the work, and that was what captivated him.

[15:56] And we too, we should have that kind of thankfulness, that gratefulness, what God has done for us, that gladness, that we can gladly serve him. Gladly and thankfully.

[16:07] Think of what you've got to be thankful for. Thankful for his blood, the soul-saving, precious blood of the land that was given for you. His brokenness for you.

[16:18] His travail of soul for you. And the life-changing word of God that he's given to you. Do you count it as precious?

[16:29] Unto you that believe, he is precious. And his word is precious. His blood is precious. It's soul-saving truth. It's too important to miss this.

[16:40] Our service too should be hearty. It should be heartily that we give our serving unto him. In Colossians 3.23, Paul writes a whatsoever. In other words, absolutely everything.

[16:52] Okay, you could paraphrase that, I think, without questioning God's word. Absolutely everything, whatsoever you do. Do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men.

[17:05] Not only that, of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ. You know, even I could think of being the bus driver tonight. It was quite disappointing because nobody wanted to get on the bus with me tonight.

[17:20] And I could feel quite despondent and despairing. And I could have had an extra hour lying in bed having a snooze or preparing my sermon tonight.

[17:31] But nevertheless, we do it heartily as unto the Lord. It's not unto the men that we're doing it. We're doing it unto the Lord. And the reward will be his reward.

[17:44] It's not a reward of being patted on the back or of men so much. But ye serve the Lord Christ. You serve him. The Lord Christ or the Master Christ.

[17:56] You serve him. Is your service unto him? Sometimes our serving in terms of church work, it might be we're serving the pastor or we're serving the church or we're serving our fellow believers in whatever ways.

[18:10] But ultimately and absolutely and essentially, our service is not unto men. It is unto him. And if we've got that heart attitude, then it doesn't matter whether people might abuse you and use you and mistreat you and not seem to be considerate of you.

[18:28] That goes by the by. We're not here to serve them. We're here to serve him. And that's what counts. Think of the Lord Jesus as the one, the model, the model servant, the model one.

[18:41] As he showed the disciples the full extent of his gracious love. They were there arguing who was going to be the greatest.

[18:54] Who would be the chief? Who would be the head honcho? Who would be the big chiefs? Who would be the greatest of the disciples?

[19:05] Who would have that place of authority in the hierarchy of the church of the day as it were? Who would be the greatest of the disciples?

[19:18] And there they were arguing. And I heard this in that room. There was two things. There was proud hearts and dirty feet. There were proud hearts and dirty feet in John 13.

[19:32] And in John 13, we can be like them. Arguing about who's going to have the best status or recognition or a little name tag with whatever our title is or our position or whatever our responsibility might be.

[19:51] Sometimes it can go to your head and it shouldn't because we're just his servants. We're unprofitable servants. We've just done what our Lord has told us to do. We're just unprofitable servants.

[20:02] Exactly. And we've got nothing to credit. And yet our sinfulness, even as Christians, our sinfulness creates power and position. It's our sinfulness.

[20:13] It's our pride. And we need to crucify that daily, brothers and sisters. I need to. Proud hearts and dirty feet.

[20:26] It was the lowest job. The lowest job was to clean the dirty feet. and we can see we that wear shoes don't get so dirty they might still get smelly but in those days in the Middle East they had open shoes or no shoes and they would just have sandals or their feet would have become very dusty very dirty, grimy and unclean, smelly certainly, you could understand that and it was the lowest job the lowest job for someone to stoop down to bow their knees to bend down and crouch over dirty feet and even, I'm told, Jewish slaves were not allowed to do it it was just the Gentiles apparently so I read somewhere today or the wife and the children they were counted as not as important it was those who were considered not important were to do that role the lowest slave of the time and Jesus broke all the rules

[21:40] Jesus broke all the rules all the conventions all the customs all of the etiquette as it were of the time and he stooped down and one by one of those 24 feet he washed them including Judas' feet and we could think of what that would mean what could that mean as we read in John 13 verse 12 so after he had washed their feet and had taken his garments and were set down again he said unto them know ye what I have done to you ye call me master and lord and ye say well for so I am if I then your lord and master have washed your feet ye also ought to wash one another's feet for I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you now there was a time Julie and I went to a church and it was a a God fearing church and the people they actually had foot washing services it was quite an unusual thing that from time to time they would do it it was quite an unconventional thing for most churches

[22:53] I know but it was a service that was intending on pursuing what Christ had said to do and of course we know the reality is that it's a spiritual truth here we're not necessarily as I understand it intending to have to follow the letter of that and wash one another's feet literally but it's got the sense of that attitude of the lowest servant that attitude of loving a brother of loving a sister to that extent that we will put ourselves in a humble place in that place of service I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you and Jesus knew he had all the power of the universe in his hands all the power of the universe at his bidding at his control all the angels of heaven at just a snap of his finger and yet those hands would have held those dirty feet and washed them lovingly and fully and not just washed the feet but he wiped them too he made a thorough job of it and he used those hands to wash the disciples feet what about you brother, sister do we stoop do we take that lowest place

[24:15] I think sometimes we don't at all and we think ill of our brother and sister or we think less of them than ourselves we want to who's the greatest we want that kind of esteem from others and yet we don't care enough for one another as we should as we ought to as our Lord tells us we must do we ought to wash one another's feet and the servant's heart will find ways to serve the servant's heart if you have one you'll find ways to serve I know I've said it before really that for every Christian there's no Christian who should be unemployed in the service of God every Christian has a place of service every Christian has a gift a calling an enabling an ability of some kind of some measure everyone has a measure of faith and a measure of a gift and numbers of gifts and the servant's heart will find ways to serve so friends to close let your hearts be a servant heart let servanthood be your aim that you'll be willing even if you don't get any recognition for that service that you give and the son even just the giving even at the offering time that is a serving the giving of your praise the giving of your time in attending and being a part of the church fellowship sometimes that's a sacrifice

[25:43] I know the son works six days a week and they still find time to come to church and to make that commitment and friends yet it's the least we can do isn't it when we think of really what he has done for us and friends let servanthood be your aim Paul described himself in Romans 1 verse 1 he says Paul a servant of Jesus Christ that was the highest title he could really have and for us too that is the highest title that we can have to be considered his servant what an honour what a great honour it is for you to be his servant today in whatever capacity whether it's cleaning or catering or greeting the things that others might think oh that's not as important a job as another job whether it's wiping the chairs or tidying up or everyday little insignificant things picking a piece of rubbish out up in the car park that's serving him it's serving the Lord

[26:46] Christ and nothing is any lesser a service than another Paul a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle separated unto the gospel of God a servant and friends to close think of Paul's exaltation at the end of 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 58 therefore my beloved brethren being steadfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord we've looked friends tonight just to recap at the servant we've looked at the master we've looked at the humble service that we should give the Christ like service the obedient service the faithful service the joyful service the hearty service we've looked at Christ the ultimate example of servanthood in

[27:46] John 13 and he says ye ought to wash one another's feet let us love one another as he has loved us and let us think what are the ways that I can serve him this week ahead now really our love for him is reflected by our service and our service reflects our love for him as we love our Lord we want to serve him obediently and willingly and our serving of others also reflects our serving of our Lord because our Lord says what you do to the least of these you do it unto me and so we can take heart in that friends when you're ministering to those little tackers in the Sunday school when you're working to bless those that might be suffering saints in hospitals and when you're going about your day by day seeking to be a messenger do it unto him

[28:47] I love to tell the story of haunting things above of Jesus and his glory See you next time.