Every year we take January as kind of a month to focus in on one particular topic and this year we focused in on the topic of being a servant or being a steward and Jonathan and I have divided it up. I started the first week talking about how the important thing about being a faithful Servant is that you know that you're a servant you understand that you are a servant and Jonathan talked about Secondly how being a servant means understanding that everything we do is part of our service service Third week you talked about how our giving is a joyful part of our service to the Lord and This week I'm going to kind of conclude that study with this very simple message a faithful servant serves the right master A faithful servant serves the right master. The right master is the one Who calls us into his joy? I don't know if you were paying attention yet when the call to worship was read out I picked that text because I love it. I love the fact that that our Lord comes to us and says well done good and faithful servant enter into the joy of your master Enter into the joy of your master. He he's not using our work to set up a better heaven for him But he is calling us to come to the feast with him. He's calling us to come to the party with him and And it's important that we understand that that our service really does bring joy to the Lord and he invites us to enter into that joy a book called Plastic Donuts by a writer of Jeff Anderson describes that joy pretty well He he talks about a time when his daughter had just received a kind of a play kitchen For Christmas and she was cooking for him on her play kitchen and she would bring him These plastic doughnuts, you know the little doughnuts with a pink icing and and he would he would take the doughnut and And that clock he was eating it would just she would just Tackle with giggles, you know She would take them back and put them back in the oven bring them back to her and He said now obviously those plastic doughnuts weren't doing anything for me I didn't really eat them. I didn't need them. She was not adding anything to me But it really did genuinely make me happy that she wanted to bring them to me It made her genuinely happy that I received them Me seeing her get happy made me even happier Her seeing me even happier made her happier and it was the spiral of joy That's what it means to to enter into the joy of your master You're not just seeing that he's happy, but you're entering into that joy. He genuinely God genuinely takes joy in you He is delighted in you. He is so happy that you would give a moment. He is so happy by every gift that you give When you read the New Testament with those goggles on it becomes so startling to you He says things like Every glass of water that is given in my name. I will reward He's delighted by every little thing you do for him But there's one thing you have to understand and I Is very important that you understand To make that illustration crystal clear and that's this When it make you happy if I brought you a plastic doughnut? No If a full-grown adult that you barely know brings you a plastic doughnut, you're not gonna go You're gonna look at it and go Are you okay? This is an odd thing to bring me Why did it make a Jeff Anderson so happy that his daughter brought him a plastic doughnut? Because she says daughter The reason why God is so delighted in our work is because we're his children Because he's already delighted in us If you don't understand that then your service becomes a true slavery It becomes a continual effort to just be a little bit better a little bit better just to make God Satisfied with you. God's not interested in being your master. He's your father He's your father That's why everything that is his is yours when we're about to read in this text about how amazingly generous he is because everything that is his is ours because he is our father He's already pleased with us That's why our service any little thing we do pleases him because he's already rejoiced over us Please remember that as we look at this text The faithful servant is a servant who serves the right master the servant who serves his father Please stand as we read the word of God from Mark chapter 10 As Jesus was setting out in his journey a man ran up to him and knelt before him and asked him good teacher What must I do to inherit eternal life and Jesus said to him? Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone You know the commandments do not murder or do not commit adultery do not steal do not bear false witness do not defraud Honor your father and mother. He said to him Teacher all these I have kept from my youth and Jesus looked at him and loved him and said to him you lack one thing Go and sell all that you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me Disheartened by the saying he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions and Jesus looked around and said to his disciples how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God and His disciples were amazed at his words, but Jesus said to them again children How difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God And they were exceedingly astonished and said to him then who can be saved Jesus looked at them and said with man it is impossible, but not with God For all things are possible with God Peter began to say to him see we've left everything and followed you and Jesus said Truly I say to you there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands For my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundred fold now in this time Houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecution And in the age to come eternal life The many who are first will be last in the last first Let's far the reading of God's word. Please be seated
The key to be in a faithful servant is to serve the right master the good and gracious father And Jesus looks uses this this person who comes to talk to him and tries to free him from two tyrants The first terrible master that he tries to free him from is the master of self effort or self righteousness I want you to kind of get into this text I know you've heard it a million times some of you but but experience it First of all we see this man comes running up to Jesus now that's a stark passage No one in that culture of any age no one except a child would run When Kenneth Bailey went and lived in Israel for years and years and studied the parables trying to understand them better He asked one of the the people there in Israel he said what what strikes you about the prodigal son and and he said Without blinking he said the fact that the father ran to his son nobody in our culture runs Especially no one in that time period because they wore you know robes and You can't run and skirts and so they would have to pull their skirts up It's just not very masculine you know be running around with your skirt in your hand and um They would never do that And it really shows us how desperate this young man is He he runs up to Jesus and he throws himself down on his knees in front of Jesus And he says what must I do to enter it eternal life? And Jesus says we know the the commandments don't kill anybody don't steal don't commit adultery Love your neighbors yourself And I want you to hear this with all the pathetic sadness that's in it He says these things I have done since I was a you I have tried I've done it all I've kept your rules I Have been good and yet he desperately wants eternal life He is desperate he knows that he hasn't gotten it whatever it is that salvation that that life that uh that Joy he knows he's falling short Even though he has kept the loss since he was a you The first tyrant that we have to be careful that we do not fall into slavery under Is self effort It's it's the effort to make ourselves right I um I met a new Teacher this last week when I was on the cruise. It was a mercy me inspiration cruise and and I met a guy named John Lynch And he describes this tyrant as as the tyrant of self effort self-righteous effort And he says in the Christian life is really After you've been a Christian for a little while he says you meet across roads and There's two signs one sign says trust God and the other sign says please God And he says you look up and you think trusting God that's just too easy That can't be that Pleasing God that's what I want to do. I want to be pleasing to God And so he walked down that trail for a while and you come up to this house And it's beautiful and it's filled with beautiful people and on the front of the house says Striving hard to be everything that God wants me to be That's what it means to be a Christian. Jesus has done all this for me now. I'm going to start doing it for him I'm going to strive hard to be everything he wants me to be And he reaches for the doorknob and the doorknob says self effort And he thinks that's right. Jesus saved me for my sins now. It's up to me. God has done what he want He needs to do now. It's my job now. It's up to me to be a fully committed believer And so he turns that doorknob and he walks in and there's a beautiful hostess And she says welcome to the home of good intentions How are you? And he starts to say oh well I'm struggling You know, I mean this Christian life has been harder than I expected it's been it's been discouraging and I'm afraid But as she starts to talk she goes
We're fine here, aren't you And he says yeah, I'm fine And he notices that he's walked into a masquerade ball and everyone is dressed beautifully and have ordained masks on She hands him a mask and he puts it on because he loves masquerade balls And on the back wall Is written working working on my sin to achieve intimacy with God Working on my sin. That's right my sin is what is separating me from God and I've got to quit it I'm going to keep that law I'm going to get it out of my way Between me and Jesus is this big pus ball of sin and it's foul and I'm going to get it out of the way This year I'm going to be more committed to my quiet times this year. I'm going to be more committed to deleting my children and family Indivisionals this year I'm going to be more committed to going to church this year. I'm going to be more committed to studying theology This year I'm going to be more committed to my community group and I'm going to get that sin out from between me and Jesus
And day after day week after week month after month that pus ball only grows And I want so badly to keep my eyes on Jesus But I can't see anything but that ball And it just never goes away And I keep having to hide behind the mask and keep trying to lie to myself that I'm fine and I know that I'm not fine and finally He says you have to run out You have to run out of that house And you have to go back to the crossroads Of trusting God and he describes the house that that second road leads to It's called It's called the house of grace And written on the wall there is written on the wall there. It's written Living out of what God declares me to be
God has already done everything that needs to be done He is already eradicated your sin. He's not separated from you anymore. He's there beside you working with you He's working with us He has made himself He's made himself our father And that's what Jesus is looking at this man doing but he says follow me Follow me the man can't do it. He can't do it. He says I've kept your law since my youth and In Jesus in a severe mercy Takes the knife and he points right at him and he says I'm going to show you two things one. I'm going to show you you haven't kept that law and two I'm going to show you a second tyrant that you worship And he does it this way. He says okay Sell all your goods give them to the poor You just told me that since your youth you have loved your neighbor as much as you love yourself Prove it if you love your neighbor as much as you love yourself All that stuff you've got sell it and give it to your neighbor If you're keeping it you're not loving him as much you love you And the man went away sorrowful For he had great possessions He went away sorrowful because he was a slave to a second tyrant There was a slave to wealth and Wealth is a tyrant that has enslaved our entire culture It is epidemic the slavery to wealth that we live amongst and it's so much so that we don't even think we have it We don't even believe that it's there, but all you have to do is just ask yourself a few questions to begin to see it What is it that determines where you live? How many people do you know that have been offered great jobs haven't moved to get them? wealth determines where you live what city you live in it determines who your friends are wealth determines when we're able to get married you can't get married yet you haven't even to college you can't get married yet You haven't finished your college your graduate degree you can't get married yet You're not established in your work wealth determines how many children we have I can't afford to have kids yet. I can't afford to have more kids wealth determines our security you can't afford to retire wealth of wealth wealth determines when you get up in the morning When you go to bed at night When you have leisure time When you have time for anything else it's only wealth puts it stamp upon your schedule these hours are mine you can have what's left And it is a slavery that we are utterly blind to just ask yourself would you let anything else make those decisions for you I mean honestly can you imagine a situation where the government comes in and says you can't get married yet You can't have children yet when when China tried to say or did say to it citizens You can only have one child the whole western world rose up and said that's tyranny and we were right And we would never submit ourselves to that kind of tyranny from the government, but we would submit ourselves to that kind of tyranny voluntarily To wealth To the belief that a certain amount of wealth is necessary to live this line It's a slavery. It really is a slavery to us And Jesus calls us away from it And calls us to follow him just follow him Let him be our master And what is life like when we let him be our master? Well Peter raises his hand and says hey Jesus Do you remember me? You remember you you called me to leave everything and follow you and I did it Remember I was I was there fishing and and I left the nads and I left my dad. He's really mad at me still mad at me over that I left everything And Jesus it doesn't say that you last but I think you last This is jail Peter. You haven't you haven't given anything up for me I promise you Peter Nobody leaves father Our son or mother or daughter or wife or lands because of me who will not receive 100 times over in this life In this life Well, he's Not fathers and don't mothers and daughters and sons And in lands and in the life to come eternal life With persecutions which we're not going to talk about today. That's a whole other issue And Jesus I want you to understand first of all how is he able to make that offer What kind of God what kind of master would say every everything that I have is yours Only one who's talking to his sons and daughters only one who says You're my son It's all yours It's all yours There's nothing you can really offer me there's nothing you can really do to please me. I want you to get that I think The Christian words sound so good right Trying to live to please God. I mean what could possibly be wrong with that Other than the fact that it's impossible and it's a slavery And and Isaiah 40 God says you could offer to me every cow and Israel you could chop down every tree in Lebanon It would not be enough to sacrifice of a sacrifice for me There is nothing you can offer me that's enough But I'm delighted in you You have to receive it you have to receive it you have to live by faith Hebrew says without faith It's impossible to please the Lord You have to receive his son by faith and not receive him as step one and now we're gonna get busy busy and serious about pleasing God But receiving him and recognizing he is pleased with you You are his son and whom he is Well pleased He is delighted with you and then we walk along beside him and everything that is his is ours And that's not that's not some kind of hyperbolic Trust me. It's gonna be great. It is true The Lord provides for his children The Lord provides for his children my father was not a believer when I was young and You know he left But I don't in no way should you feel sorry for me. I I If I were to ride in an autobiography it would be called fathers that I've had The Lord has provided father after father after father to me from my oldest brother to my FCA director to the camp director invited me to come be a counselor even though I was As backwards as you could be to the inner city minister inviting me to live with him One summer to the campus minister invited me to live within the next summer To the mentors. I had in seminary to the pastors that I had and in Cleveland Mississippi that I continued to criticize and I told him he didn't know what he was doing And he just smiled and laughed and kept feeding me He just loved me The Lord has provided father after father and and mother after mother who's who've taken care of me and fed me and invited me into their homes and And hugged me and listen to me and let me cry on their shoulders and And brothers, you know to go into the ministry. I left two brothers at home
But the Lord's So generous I want you to see it. This is a little bit of a vulnerable thing, but If you consider yourself to be my brother would you raise your hand?
I'm not lacking. I've got plenty I've gotten more here than I left behind Because the Lord is gracious And he is generous And everything that is his is mine
But you can you'll never earn it. You will never be good enough to earn it You can only receive it You can only receive it He is the only master who invites us into his joy Be joyful to receive it And he makes him joyful to give it And it is a spiral of joy that you are welcome to enter And it's not a one-time thing guys. You know the the the door knob to the house of grace is called humility And you have to turn that door knob every day And every day you got to say Screwed up again and every time you turn that door knob you find grace You find someone they're welcoming you And they ask you how you're doing and you say I'm fine And they look at you and say really You're the only one here None of us are fine and you feel at home And we're all working together We are working together with Jesus And that is that is the only master And he is the only master who will invite you into his joy Everybody else just a little bit more Self-righteousness is a tyrant Just a little bit more There's no you've never done enough Self-righteousness is like that uh It's like that buffet on the cruise ship You know you get no credit for the 10 times you walk by and got nothing You don't lose any weight for needing nothing You gain weight when you do that 12th time when you do stop It's it's never enough Wealth and riches is a tyrant you never have enough You never have enough The John Jacob Astrow when he was one of the richest men in the world Said the burden of having 90 built 90 million dollars is too great for any back to bear And two a man every one of his things Give it a shot I think I'm up to it. It's a lying tyrant And the Lord is a gracious father Well you come to him Please pray with me Father in heaven. I pray that you give us the grace to see To see those false masters that we serve I pray that you'd be as gracious to us as Jesus was with a young ruler The rich young man Show us the things that we worship instead of you
And I pray that you give us the grace to turn away from them And to enter into your joy I pray in Jesus name