Master part 2
Life or death. Blessing or cursing. Light or darkness. Truth or lie. God or mammon. What you believe is who you yield yourself to. Who you, in a sense, serve. And yesterday I said serving God is not about Him saying something and you doing it or else. But there IS an example of this in the Old Testament: Abraham, the father of faith. In Genesis 12:1 God tells Abraham (then Abram), "...Get thee out of thy country..." and in verse four the Bible tells us, "So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him..." God told Abraham to go and Abraham went. That, in it's most simple form, is faith. And I always tell people that's also the safest place to be. If God tells you to do something... do it. But I've found in my life it's not usually as simple as that. God doesn't "speak" to me in a audible voice. Most of the time He speaks to me through songs (and secular songs at that). So I don't wait for my "master" to give me orders. Instead, I follow where the Spirit leads. And the Spirit leads (and guides) us into all truth. The truth that Daddy loves us. The truth that we love--that we CAN love--because we are loved. That's what it means to "serve" God. Jesus said it like this, "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me" (John 6:56-57). We don't live FOR God, we live BY God. We live IN God, as He lives in us. Which, of course, means we don't live FOR love, we live BY love. We live IN love, as love lives in us. If God is my master that means love is my master. 2 Corinthians 5:14 says it like this, "For the love of Christ constraineth us..." The NLT renders that verse, "Christ's love controls us..." Over and over in the New Testament Paul refers to himself as, "a prisoner of Jesus." Why? Because he messed up and Jesus "got him?" Locked him in jail and threw away the key? Sentenced him to an eternal fiery "hell"? NO. Because he was gripped by grace. Because there was something inside him bursting at the seams to come out. Something uncontainable. Something uncontrollable. I said this last week in my WWW sermon, "Self control means giving up control." It means we stop trying to do something, or be something (or someone) and we just let Jesus do whatever He wants to do in and through and as us. Let Jesus be Himself in and through and as us. It's not me serving a master, doing whatever he says or else. It's the master doing it Himself... in me. It's me presenting my body as a living sacrifice. Being led by the Spirit. Led by love. Controlled by love. Serving love by serving love! Not trying to earn something, but receiving and releasing what I've already been given. A slave works in the hopes of earning something (and finds out that no matter how hard he tries there always one thing he lacks). A Son "works" (from the posture of rest) because He already has something, and it's so good that He can't help but share what He's got!