Allen Jackson - You've Gotta Serve Somebody - Part 2
You know, I believe in the sinner’s prayer, and again, I don’t want to minimize or denigrate that. But it’s a doorway to serving the King. And there’s some things that go with that. Again, it’s not an inclusive list. I didn’t think you’d want to stay if I tried to make an inclusive list. But I started with the most obvious, and I think we understand as servants that it really isn’t about my will. Something has to happen, I have to surrender my will, I have to yield my will, that my will cannot predominate. It doesn’t mean we’re void of a will.
We have one, God’s given it to us. What we wanna do is not completely neutralize it. We want to redirect it towards the Lord. We wanna use our will. My will is to honor the Lord. I want to learn to walk in godliness. I wanna learn to walk uprightly before him. I wanna learn to walk in righteousness and holiness and purity, and none of those things are automatic, and I don’t believe any of them should be understood in purely spiritual terms. They all have very practical expressions. But I can tell you this, if you lack the intent, if you don’t have the will for them to happen, it is highly improbable that they will fill your life. You have to choose to honor the Lord.
Ephesians chapter 1, «Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God». Paul had no intention of being an apostle of Christ Jesus. Paul had every intention of being a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He hated Christians. He put people in prison that said they believed Jesus was a Messiah. You had a divine interruption. And our reality is I don’t believe any of us intended, it wasn’t originating in our will to be servants of the Most High God. God did an intervention. We usually call it conviction or we’ve got some labels around it, but there’s a redirection, a radical redirection. It’s a part of our God story. It may have not meant a change of career.
Paul is still a student of Scripture, a teacher of Scripture, and one who intervenes in the lives of people on behalf of the Word of God, but he put Jesus at the center of that. And you and I are called by God. It’s his will. Philippians chapter 3, Paul said, «Whatever was to my profit I now consider a loss for the sake of Christ. I consider it rubbish». The original language, even more harsh, «That I may gain Christ and be found him into him». «Look, there were some things that were to my credit. I had some advantages, some opportunities. I had some good education and some good training and some momentum and some accomplishments. From where I stand today,» he said, «you know, it’s really kind of just a bunch of junk. I have yielded my will to serve God».
I’m asking you to consider that. You may be a tenured Christ follower, you can finish my sentences. You may have read your Bible through many, many times. But are we willing to yield our will to God? It’s a characteristic of a servant. How long do you think a servant would flourish if he was given an instruction and said, «No, don’t want to»? See, we have taken such a soft approach in many aspects of our faith that we think God offers us suggestions. The New Covenant, we imagine, is so grace heavy that God is no longer sovereign, that God offers suggestions or hints or invitations. I think God still provides directives. «Moses, I’ve heard the cries of my people. I’ve seen their suffering, and I’m sending you». «I don’t wanna go». «I know, shut up and go anyway».
Living Bible. «Ananias, go tell Saul. I’ve been watching him. He’s made a miserable mess of his life. I have a new assignment for him. Go tell him it’s gonna be really difficult». Ah… God’s will. So, I think, at the heart of being a servant is we begin to take, the Bible, the description that’s given, the larger description, is about overcoming. We have to crucify that old part of us that says, «I want my way. This is what I want». Okay, duly noted, but now there’s a more relevant question. What does God want? And it’s not always simple. So, we start with the fundamentals. We understand the fundamentals about godly and ungodly, we say, «I have to learn to want godliness».
We understand the fundamentals between moral and immoral and say, «I have to start to choose moral». With what you understand about right and wrong, we have to begin to say, «You know, okay, I choose what’s right. But there’d be more advantageous if I was less right. There’d be more profit if I was a little less right. Might be more pleasure if I was a little less moral». Might be, but not really. And we have to take our will, the way we serve the Lord, and say, «I will choose what I understand of godliness». And what I’ve found is there’s a progressive revelation.
As you do that and I do that, then we can take another step. Do you ever go to a gym and watch people do things that you can’t do? Bunch of freaks? A bunch of skinny, fit people? I think we ought to have a gym for people that are fluffy, eat donuts, and watch videos of skinny fit people. That’s a franchise idea right there. You know, we imagine that the people that are in better physical condition than we are, «It was just genetic. They just got a different set of gifts than I did». I used to take care of horses; you know, some horses, you feed two horses the same amount of feed, and one of them flourishes and one of them doesn’t. I’m a flourisher. And you look at those people, «Oh, they got some gift I didn’t get».
Yeah, they did, it’s called discipline. And to learn to take my will and say, «I will serve the Lord», every one of us has access to that. The second component of being a servant of the King is contentment, contentment. This comes from the Spirit of God. It doesn’t come from our old nature. In Philippians chapter 4, Paul writes, and he said, «I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty». He’s lived on both extremes. He said, «I’ve learned the secret,» and that intrigues me. He describes it that way. «I’ve learned the secret of being content in any and every situation». Wow, can you imagine to be content no matter the situation?
«Whether I’m well fed or whether I’m hungry, whether I’m living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength». Whether I have a lot or a little, whether it’s easy or it’s difficult, whether there’s applause or criticism, I’ve learned there’s a place of contentment. And that the bridge through those places is I can do it in Christ Jesus. I can’t do it in my own self. It’s not just a mental exercise. It’s not about discipline or force of will. I have to stay in Christ. I have to remember I’m serving the King in this place. If I weren’t serving the King, I wouldn’t stay in this place. If I weren’t serving the King, I wouldn’t hold this attitude. If I weren’t serving the King, I wouldn’t be engaged in this behavior. I can do it in Christ.
See, contentment is not complacent. I would submit to you that contentment is a posture of trust, that it’s a confident place of knowing God’s faithfulness and knowing that it will be expressed in your circumstances, if not in this moment, the faithfulness of God will be expressed. And so, I choose to be content. The timing and the method of that expressed faithfulness resides in God’s fear and not ours. I’ve told you on many occasions I complain about God’s timing. I still do. He doesn’t seem to be too moved by my complaints. But I’m telling you, contentment is a gift.
1 Timothy 6:6 says, «Godliness with contentment is great gain». Apparently you can be godliness with great discontentment and you forfeit a great deal of gain. Why would you do that? Why would you do that? Practice contentment. I choose to be content. «Well, life’s harder this week than», I understand, but let’s choose to be content. God’s faithfulness will arrive. His provision will be apparent. «I didn’t want to walk this path». I understand, but God has led us down this path, and he will lead us through the shadowed valley. God is faithful. There’s a third component of serving the King, and that’s that we’re entrusted with authority, that that authority can be extended, given to us, or it can be withdrawn. I think it’s an important distinction.
Philippians chapter 2, verse 8, it’s speaking of Jesus again, says, «Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him». «Therefore» is a conclusion word. I learned years ago, and I’ve told you often, that when you see a «therefore,» you need to find out what it’s there for. Because Jesus took the nature of a servant and he humbled himself and became obedient, obedient even to death on a cross, «Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that’s above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow, heaven and earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord».
Why did God do that? He entrusted him with authority because he became a servant. You want the authority of God to be brought to bear in your life? Begin to serve the Lord and his people. I don’t think it’s primarily a knowledge issue. I don’t think it’s about learning original languages. I don’t think it’s a social skills issue. I don’t think it’s a a resource issue. I think the Lord has to know he can trust us, that his will matters to us, and that we will learn to be content with little or a lot, we’ll learn to trust him. If he knows we can be engaged, because of Jesus’s attitude, because of the choices Jesus made, he’s given this exalted position above all of creation. It’s not nepotism, it’s not because of some status he had in the family.
The Scripture’s very clear. Jesus used this when he told the parables of the servants and the talents. Remember the servants that came back and they had a good report. They said, «You gave me two talents, and I have two more». He said, «Well done, good and faithful servant». One with five talents came back with five additional, «Well done, good», there was no discrepancy between the two. They’ve been faithful with the gifts that they’ve been given. Then the one came in and he said, «You know, I took what you had and I buried it. There’s been no fruitfulness from it, but here you go». He said, «You’re wicked and lazy, a wicked and lazy servant. Take away what he has».
So that authority, those gifts, those blessings, they can be extended, they can be withdrawn. Are you serving the Lord? I want to. I don’t want to point to how I’ve served the Lord. I want to serve the Lord today and tomorrow. I want to keep that alive in me. It’s not a seasonal thing. It may look different in different seasons, that would be my experience, but I want to serve the Lord. You can be entrusted with authority. And then a fourth characteristic of serving the King is there are limits to that authority.
This intrigues me, John 13, Jesus is speaking. «I’ve set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor a messenger greater than the one who sent him». No servant is greater than his master. Whatever you decide to serve sets the ceiling, the potential for your existence. We talked about money last weekend. If you serve money, the Bible says that money is temporary, it’s a part of this present age, so the limit of your life is completely sealed off at this present age. When this age is over, what you’ve served no longer has value. I think we get that, in the secular realm. The authority you serve, the place where you work has an authority that expresses over your life. It’s not typically global or universal. It’s limited by that organization, that group of people.
Well, the way Jesus chose to say it was a servant isn’t greater than his master. Well, suppose your master is the Creator of all things, the name at which every knee will bow and every tongue confess. Then what’s the potential of your life? It’s unlimited. God can do anything. He can part a sea, he can bring water out of a rock, he can cause the most powerful ruler in the world to step out of his mind and lose his balance and then give it back to him again, Nebuchadnezzar. He can orchestrate circumstances that because you choose to serve him will cause you to be thrown into a furnace. I don’t like that. I’d rather lead the parade, rather win the lottery. I don’t want to get tossed into a lion’s den.
You know, I don’t like so many of our platitudes. «You know, well, God will take you through». I was thinking of people telling me that. I wish he’d take them through. You know, when I’m in those places and I typically, I wish God just took me around, like a bypass, detour. But he does take us through. When people are walking through hard times, sometimes the best thing you can say is, «God will, you know, I’m praying for you». God, I can’t fix a lot of it, but I know the one who can. I’m telling you, this is such an important point. The limits of authority in your life can be understood by what you serve, not in word, but in an honest review of time, effort, attention, resources.
What are you serving? I wanna serve the Lord. It changes completely my imagination of the future. And here’s the awkward part. I think we don’t serve the Lord because I think, honestly, we think it’s kind of burdensome, intrusive, loathsome. You know, how much? It’s like, «I need to eat some green, something green. How about pistachio ice cream, is that green enough? So how much green stuff do I have», Kathy used to drink this stuff. I called it pond scum. It looked like pond scum. Have you ever seen a pond where there was no movement and there’s something grows on the top of it? She had that every morning in a glass. I passed. I’d rather have an apple fritter.
I’ve changed a little bit. But I think our attitude towards serving the Lord is very, «Well, how much do I have to, you know, how long? Oh, man, again»? And I’m not recruiting, so I don’t mean just in terms of something that we would present to you as a service, but I mean every day. It isn’t just my time. I’ve got assignments and responsibilities, and some of them I would not do, I promise you, if I didn’t put them in the context of «I will do this to serve the Lord». But I don’t mean that begrudgingly or with resentment or bitterness. I’ll do it voluntarily, but I will do this because my intent is to serve the Lord. I’m not clueless that there aren’t other options, that I could do something else, but I choose, I want to serve the Lord.
I want you to begin to think, what’s that look like for you? How could you serve the Lord? An expression of kindness, a kind word, a focus of your attention, and initially it’s not gonna feel pleasant. It’s like that first day at the gym. The first day you go doesn’t feel so bad, you feel pretty good about yourself when you leave, but two days later and you can’t get out of bed without pain? And that first time you served, well, you’ll feel kind of good about, «Oh, I did something good». You’re like, «Now I got that out of the way for a while. I’ll go back to doing what I wanna do».
We want to be servants of the Most High God. It’s an adopted behavior. It’s the greatest honor of our lives. Why would we do that? There’s a promise attached to it. You see, you want the blessings, you want the opportunities, but you don’t want to meet the conditions, so we hold up our salvation card and a picture of our baptism certificate and we said, «I got it all». Well, you did, legally, but experientially, we have to choose to say no to ungodliness and yes to godliness and choose to serve the Lord. No servant is greater than his master. I will willingly say I’m a servant of the Most High, I will willingly bow my knee, I will willingly stand in a public place and say, «I’m with Jesus. I’m with him».
I will embrace a biblical worldview, a Judeo-Christian worldview, the principles of Scripture. I believe there’s a God, that he created the heavens and the earth, that Jesus of Nazareth is his Son, that he died on a cross, was buried, raised, I’m in with all of that stuff, and that has nothing to do with my day job. Well, it has something to do with my day job, but one led to the other. I want to serve the King. Yes, there’s some consequences for that, and sometimes in the short run it feels like a deficit. Sometimes in the short run, inside of me, I’m tempted to grumble or complain, and I have to say I don’t, I’ll just be quiet for a bit until I can get my attitude to the place where I can say, «God, thank you for the privilege of serving you».
I hope on a regular basis you spend time in places that you wouldn’t if you didn’t consciously think you were a servant of the King. Hope there are invitations you decline because you’re consciously a servant of the King. This isn’t complicated, it isn’t complex. It’s before us, it will change the trajectory of your eternity. «Well done». I’m not suggesting we earn our way to heaven. I understand salvation is a free gift, but what you do with your life is your gift to the one who gave you the gift of salvation.
One last point, I really, there is an end to this, I promise. And you should be aware that you’re serving someone every day. I think we’re really blind to this. I think it escapes us. I think if we’re not consciously serving the King, we’re unconsciously serving the kingdom of darkness. In John chapter 8 Jesus is talking to a group of people, and before I read it, I would point out to you that the people he’s talking to are the covenant people of God. They offer sacrifices, they eat the right foods, they go to the right places, they have the right holidays, they’re checking so many boxes, and Jesus said to them, «If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God, and now I’m here. I haven’t come on my own; but he sent me».
What’s he saying? He said, «I’m serving my Father. I didn’t come on my own». That’s a polite way of saying, «I wouldn’t be here if Pop hadn’t asked me to come. Bunch of knuckleheads». «You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires». They were very offended at that statement. But the reality is this: There’s two options. It’s a dual set of choices. You either serve God or you’re gonna serve the devil or you’re gonna serve yourself; that old, carnal nature, Adamic nature, earthly nature, fallen nature is on the wrong side.
Can you be a Christ follower and serve your carnal nature? Yes, you can. You can. But you will forfeit the blessings of God. And it’s a frightening place to me, because it suggests that your fruitfulness can be dramatically diminished. Remember the parable of the sower or, I mean, there’s just multiple examples. I’m not trying to frighten you with your salvation, but I’m trying to awaken you out of the smugness of self-righteousness. We’re serving someone, and let’s intentionally, purposefully, on a daily basis decide to serve the Lord. It will change, it’ll change your home, it’ll change the way you go into the marketplace, it’ll change what you do with your discretionary time.
I brought you a prayer. I brought you a prayer. It’s really simple. We can say it together. Why don’t you stand with me? You’re one of the best group of servers I know anywhere in the world. I thank God for you. I can’t wait. I made a comment to someone recently. I said I can’t wait till we get to the other side of this and I get to watch your rewards. I will lose my voice. I’ll be that half crazy hillbilly somewhere in the back of the room just hooting and hollering for you. It’d be the greatest delight of my life. It’s the greatest honor to serve with you, but I don’t want to take it for granted. Together:
Heavenly Father, I choose obedience to You, to my Lord Jesus, and to the direction of the Holy Spirit. Lead me in paths of righteousness. Grant me a willing spirit to serve You faithfully. May my thoughts and attitudes be pleasing in Your sight. Lead me not into temptation, deliver me from evil. May Jesus’s name be exalted throughout the earth, amen.