0:07 Some of you have asked me which version this is. It's actually four versions. That's why it's huge. Uh yeah, so as we've been discussing pursuing Jesus in our single years, uh we'll now discuss pursuing Christ as the source of all ministry. 0:25 I want to start with this in Colossians 3. Now, this is in reference to um some commands to different different people, husbands, wives, children, servants, but 0:44 still true to us. It says in Colossians 3:23, in regards to ministry, there's been a few verses that have been key to me. And this is one of them. 3:23, "And whatsoever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not unto 0:59 men, knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ." I think that's the one of the key things that has been essential to the ministry God has called me to over the years, and as it's grown, 1:16 I'm serving the Lord. It's a very simple very simple thing to acknowledge. But, you know, we have examples of in the scriptures of many people who were in the ministry that do not serve the Lord. They were self-seeking, seeking the honor of men. 1:35 We know this of the Pharisees. So, why do we do ministry? Well, Ephesians Ephesians chapter 4, when speaking of you know, this is Paul here speaking to the 1:53 church at Ephesus, saying, "What did Jesus do for us? He ascended, he descended. Verse 11, he gave us apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. Why is it? It's verse 12, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work 2:11 of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. I see there are two things there with the work of the ministry before and after. It says, for the perfecting of the saints and for the edifying, the building up of 2:24 the body of Christ. Those are the two things that I see why we do the ministry. We do it for the Lord so that we can perfect the saints and build up the body. So, earlier, I think in the question and answer session, someone had said 2:43 something in regards to ministry and I think a couple of brothers responded with the story of Mary and Martha and that's actually exactly what I wanted to speak on. One of the key things that the Lord has, um, impressed on me over the years is, 3:01 um, well, I'll show you in Let's go to Luke chapter 10. So, we see two different stories of Mary and Martha, sort of three. Um, Luke chapter 10, we first read about them and then in John 11 and 12, we read about them 3:21 again. So, I want you to notice something and I think someone had mentioned this before. So, this is Jesus. Now, it came to pass as they went that he entered into the verse 38, that he entered into a certain village and a 3:36 certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. But, Martha, now I'm reading from the Living Bible cuz I actually like how it says it here. It says, "But Martha was 3:52 the jittery type and was worrying over the big dinner she was preparing." Um now the Bible does make it clear that Jesus loved Martha. So, I think sometimes Martha gets picked on quite a bit, but she gets picked on because she didn't 4:08 choose the better thing. We know that. Um so, you know, I get a picture of Jesus is coming by in this village and Martha says, "Hey, come on in." There's nothing wrong with that. That's great. What do we see Mary doing? 4:23 She's sitting. It looks like there's no ministry at all going on there. She's just sitting. And it says, I want you to see how many times it shows she's sitting at Jesus' feet. And then verse 40, but um she came to Jesus and said, "Sir, 4:39 doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me." And I can see this like, "Hey, I'm I'm preparing this big dinner. I mean, it's Jesus. Like, you should be helping me." 4:55 But the Lord said to her, "Martha, dear friend, you are so upset over all these details. There's really only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and I won't take it away from her." What was Mary doing? She was sitting. 5:11 Now look let's look over at the other two stories of Mary and Martha, John chapter 12. Uh I'm sorry, John chapter 11. Let's go there first. So, we'll start in verse one. 5:39 Now a certain man was sick named Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore, his sister sent unto him, 5:52 saying, "Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick." When Jesus heard that, he said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." And here we see, now Jesus loved Martha, 6:05 and her sister, and Lazarus. When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was. So, after they had sent for him, Jesus still stayed two more days. Um then he said to his disciples, 6:23 "Let us go into Judaea again." His disciples said, "Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither again?" Jesus answered, "Are there not 12 hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbles not, because he sees the light 6:36 of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbles, because there's no light in him." These things he said, and after that, he said unto them, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep." 6:48 Then his disciples said, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will do well." Albeit, Jesus spake of his death, but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then Jesus said unto them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. And I'm glad for your sakes that I was 7:02 not there, to the intent you may believe. Nevertheless, let us go and unto him." Then Thomas said unto his fellow disciples, "Let us also go that we may die with him." Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already. 7:19 Okay, so, to put this into perspective, cuz we're about to come back to Mary and Martha here. So, now, he's been four days dead, but before that, he was sick, and Mary and Martha had sent for Jesus. Now we come back to Mary and Martha. 7:38 Now, Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about 15 furlongs off. And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him. 7:50 What is Mary doing though? She's sitting. Then said Martha to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother had not died." So, I won't read the rest. We know what happened here. Um Verse 32, I do want to point this out 8:12 again actually in verse 32. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him, where is she again? She fell down at his feet saying unto him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother had not died." So, we see Mary had this 8:30 this rest that Martha did not experience. But it goes on. We know that Jesus or that Lazarus was raised from the dead. And then we come to John chapter 12. Um 8:49 we could pick up in verse pick up in verse one. Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived in Bethany where Lazarus was, the man he had brought back to life. A banquet was prepared in Jesus' honor. Martha served. So, again, we see Martha's serving. 9:06 Martha's running around. Verse three, then Mary took a jar of costly perfume made from essence of nard and anointed Jesus' feet with it and wiped them with her hair. Again, where is Mary again? She's at Jesus' feet. Okay, we know the rest of the story. 9:26 Judas was upset. He made an accusation. Money could have been used. It's about a year's worth of money that Mary dumped out and you know the story. So, what are some of the things what are some of the things that I get 9:46 here from this story? I'm actually going to save the Mark 14 passage because Mark says something that the other two don't do that Matthew and uh John talk about. Um it looked Here's the thing about ministry. It looked like Martha was the one 10:03 performing all the ministry. Just picture someone just sitting here. That's all they were doing, sitting, when Jesus comes in. And then they're sitting at Jesus' feet. They're not doing anything. They're not preparing dinner. They're not performing 10:16 any ministry as we might see ministry to be. But watch what Jesus is going to say here in just 1 second. Let's go to Mark 14. This is just a parallel passage. This is the only time that it says this of Mary. So, as Jesus is rebuking Judas, 10:53 he says in verse 7, "You always have the poor among you." which he says in the other in the other books. "They badly need your help and you could aid them whenever you want to, but I won't be here much longer." And this has been one of the guiding 11:05 principles for me right here, these next words that Jesus says here that he doesn't say in the other uh books. "She has done what she could. She did what she could." That has been a guiding principle for me when it comes to ministry, when it comes 11:20 to service. I may not have a lot of talent. I can't play the piano. You certainly don't want me up there on Sunday morning singing. But I believe this is you know seeing what Jesus says here about Mary. 11:38 She was a poor woman. She didn't have much to do, much to give. But she could wipe Jesus' feet. And I'll tell you there's some I think there's some principles that we can learn from this. Others may misunderstand or even get angry. You know, it says 11:56 that at this woman's ministry, which was just wiping the feet of Jesus, sitting at Jesus' feet, people were angry. It said that some had indignation. They were upset over this. Um and they misunderstood. They thought, well 12:11 we could feed the poor. I mean, that's a pretty good thing, feeding the poor. Why not? This This is a year's worth I mean, think about a year's worth of salary. How many poor people you could probably feed with the average American salary? 12:24 Quite a bit. So, just to take a break this perfume and clean Jesus' feet. They didn't understand and that I see that with ministry as well. It's okay if people don't understand if you're doing it for the Lord. Colossians 12:40 3. Whatever you're doing ministry-wise, do it unto the Lord. I also see in the case with Judas in a sense he despised that ministry. It says he cared for the money, but it says that others were stirred up, too. I think that they somewhat despised 13:00 this. Like you know, Jesus, why didn't you stop this from happening? You could have stopped her from doing this. But even then what is the the um what is the thing that Jesus says about this 13:18 uh this instance here? He says uh let me go back to Mark. What he says at the very end, about this one instance that happens, as if Judas wasn't rebuked enough, he says, "And I tell you this in solemn 13:37 truth, that wherever the good news is preached throughout the world, this woman's deed will be remembered and praised." So, not only was Judas wrong, not only were the other people wrong that started to murmur and complain 13:48 about her ministry, but this deed that she did will be remembered for all eternity. This one deed. I say this is if you're to ask me what does the Lord expect from us, this is it. Doing what you can. 14:06 This is the This is the source of all ministry right there, being at Jesus' feet. That's the source right there. I can speak of my own life that years ago I thought it was just doing more and more and more and more. Um I 14:24 I had a uh few years of college that was in Bible college and I uh I didn't end up finishing Bible college. I dropped out of it after I started listening to uh Brother Zach and such, but at the time I was in five, six, seven ministries at 14:43 a time. I'm not I'm not even sure anymore. Cuz that's the thing you do. You just get You just keep doing ministry. But it's not necessarily for the Lord. It's could be cuz that's what you're supposed to do, or could be seeking the honor of men. 15:02 So I want to share one more verse here. 1 Corinthians 12. If you haven't noticed, I've been 15:35 reading out of all the versions here, bouncing back and forth. Uh we'll start in verse 22. And some of the parts that seem weakest and least important are really the most necessary. Yes, we are especially glad to have some 15:48 parts that seem rather odd. And we carefully protect from the eyes of others those that those parts that should not be seen. While of course, the parts that may be seen do not require this special care. This is This is the key right here. So, 16:01 God has put the body together. Says it differently in other versions, God has constituted the body. But God is the one that has put the body together, that has given each of us a unique ministry. Says in such a way that extra honor and 16:17 care are given to those parts that might otherwise seem less important. This makes for happiness among the parts, so that the parts have the same care for each other that they do for themselves. If one part suffers, all parts suffer 16:29 with it. And if one part is honored, all the parts are glad. Now, here is what I'm trying to say. All of you together are the one body of Christ, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it. So, actually, I will share one more verse 16:45 before I close. First Timothy um First Timothy chapter 1. I'll just close with this. This is a good reminder for us all. 17:04 What Paul said here. He said, "I thank Jesus Christ our Lord, who has enabled me for he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry." So, my encouragement, remember that the source of all ministry is not the jittery type that we heard 17:21 about with Martha running around making sure the dinner was prepared. We're sitting at Jesus' feet. Yeah, I'd like to start by looking at a verse in Matthew 13. I often say in our church that um 17:43 our church is a dangerous church to be a part of because the more you hear, the more you're you're accountable for. And I think the same is true with our singles discipleship gathering. Um if you are invited, this is an 17:58 invitation-only gathering. Um yeah, it's it's a privilege. I think there's something we're seeing in your lives that allows us to build on. Let me touch on that briefly. Part of the reason we don't open it up to just anybody who wants to come 18:14 or hears about it friend of a friend is because we're trying to go deeper with Christ. And in order to do that, we have have to assume that there's a certain level of depth that you will already gone. And so, questions like, "Well, why do we 18:30 read so much from Zach?" or things like that that used to offend people in the past, we don't want to have to deal with. And thank God we don't have to deal with that anymore. You know, we're we're answerable to the Lord for what we read and who we allow 18:43 to influence our lives. But with that with the the way we're going, the kind of things we emphasize, the teachings we want to spend our time focusing on without getting into arguments about this and that, that means that we're all there and that 18:57 means we can go deeper. That means we've already come to a common level of depth uh somewhat that we share that allows us to go even deeper. But it's dangerous because Jesus says in this the people of Israel were that. It's what I call saturation of hearing. 19:16 There's a There's a scientific term called saturation, which means that the a certain object can only hold a certain amount of liquid, let's say. A rag will become saturated with water. Beyond that, can't absorb any more 19:30 water. And I believe that it's possible to come to a place where there is a saturation of hearing. Where you could get listen to more and more sermons and you wonder, "Why is this not changing my life?" It's perhaps because you listen to so 19:45 much, but you haven't grown. You haven't actually fallen into the ground and died. Haven't humbled yourself to receive grace. And if the thing doesn't grow, no matter how much more liquid you pour on it, it's it's it's reached its 19:58 saturation point. I know I've been there myself. And as a young as a single person, I reached a saturation point and no matter how much I listened to, it was it was just intellectual. I could probably tell you back almost word for 20:13 word what my dad was going to preach next or something like that, but I was saturated. And that avoiding that saturation only comes from taking up your cross, following Jesus, actually dying with him. Matthew 13 says in verse 10, 20:30 the disciples came and said to him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" Jesus answered them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. But to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, 20:44 to him more shall be given." Listen to this. This is This doesn't make sense logically. You can't understand it with your mind. "To whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance. But whoever does not have, 20:59 even what he has, shall be taken away from him." Sometime you should ask the Lord to make that verse a revelation for you. What does it mean to have so that I can be given more and to not have so that what I have, which I actually 21:16 don't have, is taken away from me. All right? But then let's go on. Therefore, I speak to them in parables because while seeing they do not see, while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. In their case, the 21:29 prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled which says, "You will keep on hearing but will not understand. You will keep on seeing but will not perceive." For the heart of this people has become dull. With their ears, they scarcely hear and 21:41 they have closed their eyes. Otherwise, they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return and I would heal them. But blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear. 21:54 For truly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and did not see it and to hear what you hear and did not hear. So, we want to continue talking about what it means to serve Jesus and as in 22:09 your single years, how to uh find your ministry in the church, uh your calling in life in the body of Christ, in his kingdom, and yet to find Jesus as the source of that. Do you know what were the first words that Jesus said 22:26 to the disciples that he would commission to serve him? Disciples, all of them except Judas, served Jesus faithfully as far as we know until the end of their lives. All of them except John died as martyrs for their faith. 22:41 Talk about service, they're an example. But you know what was the first thing they had to do? Anyone want to take a guess? Be with him. What's that? Be with him. Yeah, what was the first words that Jesus said to him to them? 22:55 Not quite. You let's turn to John 1. He said, "Come and see." Come and see. And then he said, "Follow me." John 1, and this is really the first thing I believe for serving Jesus. You want to serve Jesus faithfully, he says, "Come and 23:15 see. Come and look inside my life. Look at my home." What was he saying, "Come and see"? Jesus wasn't going to do a miracle for them. This This He still hadn't done a miracle. The miracle was to come in John chapter 2 at Cana. 23:28 But first he said, "Come and just sit here at home. I know you've seen John do wonderful things baptizing and all that. I I see I I know you've heard John's sermons and he's a fiery preacher. But we're just going to sit down in my house 23:41 and have a cup of tea. And then we're just going to chat. And I want you to see what is it that's within me." John 1 verse 35, "The next day John was standing with two of his disciples, so and he looked at Jesus as he walked and 23:57 said, 'Behold the Lamb of God.' The two disciples, they weren't disciples of Jesus yet, disciples of John, heard him speak and they followed Jesus and Jesus turned and saw them following me and said to them, 'What do you seek?' 24:09 And they said to him, 'Rabbi,' which translated means teacher, 'where are you staying?'" He said to them, "Come and see. Come and see." This is what Jesus invites us to do. If we haven't seen Jesus, but we've seen the need, we know the 24:25 lost who need uh to be saved, we know those relatives that need prayer, we we know our friends who are like this and like that, we haven't seen Jesus, then it's going to be fruitless ministry. It's going to be ministry that's based on need. "Oh, this person 24:42 needs this, this person needs that." Somebody asked that question, "How will I know?" Come and see. Jesus invites us to come and see. Uh John chapter 5 This is the verse I we I mentioned earlier, I think it was this morning. 25:04 You know, the side the the Pharisees by contrast had the opportunity to observe Jesus on the outside. They also saw Jesus, but they didn't see him. They didn't get to go to his house and see what he was like at home. They saw the miracles, they saw in the 25:18 Jews, think of all the other Jews. They saw the outward Jesus. Which Jesus are you seeing, my dear brothers and sisters? Is it the Jesus No, for us maybe we don't talk about health and wealth and and may no miracles and things like 25:33 that, but is it the Jesus that you see when you're together with others in the church? That is still an outward Jesus. If your favorite times are of of the week are when you get to hang out with your friends from church and the 25:47 brothers and sisters and wonderful times of fellowship, that's not bad, okay? Cuz I enjoy this. Don't get me wrong. I don't want it to seem like, "Man, Suttles keeps talking like he doesn't want to be around us. He just wants to 26:00 be by himself." No, that's that's false. That's asceticism, uh monk life, right? We're not called to be monks and nuns. But, uh it should be that if the Lord so allows that you're alone, he's there. That you're after him, you want to be 26:17 with him. And yes, he's in the midst of our meetings, our prayer meetings, whether it's on Zoom or playing games and singles gatherings, but he's there. Jesus is If I'm seeing Jesus, then I say, "Lord, okay, you have me here by 26:31 myself right now. I don't need somebody else. I don't need to call a friend to come hang out with me. I'm okay. You're here. I've seen you." John 5, he tells the the the Pharisees, "You search the scriptures because you 26:44 think that in them you have eternal life. It is these that testify about me, and you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life. I think if I could paraphrase Jesus words to the Pharisees, he said, "I invited you to come home for tea, but 27:01 you wanted the miracle. You wanted the sermon. You wanted the experience. You didn't want the ordinary looking walk with Jesus. And dear brothers and sisters, all service for Christ begins with being content with an ordinary looking 27:19 walk with him. So, Jesus invites you to come and see. The next thing Jesus invites you to do is to come and die. After you come and see him, let's turn to Matthew chapter 16. These disciples who uh he said, "Come and see." And then he 27:37 said, like all of us said, "Follow me." They followed him. Um what did that following Jesus look like? They didn't see it quite earlier, but later on I believe they saw it. Jesus said, "Follow me." to Peter and he said, "Yeah, I'll follow you." James, 27:54 John, Andrew, etc., Matthew, Philip, Nathaniel. Um Matthew 16, verse 20, he warned the disciples that they should tell no one that he was the Christ. These are the disciples who had seen now, right? You know what just happened? 28:11 Uh Peter's confessed, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God." Jesus says, "You've seen it, Peter. No, flesh and blood didn't reveal it to you. You didn't go to seminary. All the Pharisees studied it, but somehow you've 28:21 seen it. My father in heaven has revealed it to you. He's opened your eyes. You came to my house. I don't know if it was Peter. Probably wasn't, but Peter accepted the call to be near Jesus, not just to watch him. And the Father revealed who Jesus was to 28:38 him. And then he said, he tell you're about you tell them don't tell anyone that I'm the Christ. And then from that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests 28:54 and scribes and be killed. Now Peter still hadn't quite seen the life of Christ as much as we have even. He didn't yet have the Holy Spirit living within him. And he had to grow some more. We're standing on the shoulders of Peter plus a few who 29:11 have explained to us the things Peter didn't have somebody to open explain the new covenant like we have. Jesus couldn't AJ talked about that verse couldn't say more yet. So, let's not follow Peter, but Peter hasn't seen all 29:23 of the life of Christ. He's seen some of it. He's the Christ the son of the living God, but then Jesus says, you want to see more of me? That means I must die. And I wonder if Peter's thinking at this point, okay, I'm following Jesus. If 29:35 he's going to die, that means I'm probably also going to have to die because I'm going where he's going. Says, no, Lord. Hold on. You not for you and not for me either. This dying business can't be and then Jesus says, get behind me, Satan. 29:49 You really want to see me and serve me, you must hate your life. And Jesus had such a radical attitude towards it. He called his best friend, one of his best friends, Satan. He saw the spirit of Satan behind him. So, he says, come and die. 30:05 Um I was thinking when we were thinking about fuel earlier, I was just reminded of this verse later in Philippians chapter 2. This come and die has a mentality of secrecy and you're really a giving up of myself. Again, referring back to that Jonah article we 30:22 read. But Paul uses an expression here in Philippians 2. He actually uses a similar in 2 Timothy 4, I believe. Says, now I am already being poured out as a drink offering, he tells uh Timothy. And I've wondered, what is 30:36 this drink offering? What is a drink offering? You don't read a whole lot about it in the Old Testament. You know, I know about the grain offering, sin offering, and all those other offerings, the drink offering. You get a little bit of it here in 30:50 Philippians chapter 2. What does it mean to be poured out as a drink offering? He says, uh uh verse 16. Philippians 2:16, "Holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to 31:08 glory because I did not run in vain, nor toil in vain." Well, here's the man who was perhaps the most effective apostle of Jesus, Paul. He's saying, "I I don't want to have run in vain, or don't want to have toiled in vain. 31:22 But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith." I don't have time to dig into this and kind of pull it apart, but you do it at home, please. Poured out as a drink offering upon your 31:41 faith's sacrifice and service. The way I've understood this is that Paul was saying, "You are the sacrifice. You're giving your life as a sacrifice and service." I see the church in Philippi is doing all this service, and people can see it. I'm content for 31:56 God to just pour me as the drink offering that, as Sandeep said, gets boiled away. You don't even see it. The sacrifice you can see. The drink offering is that clear liquid, if you will, in the sacrifice that you can't even see it. It makes the sacrifice even 32:11 better. Do you want that ministry? Where somebody else will do the sacrifice, and God says, "They're going to do the sacrifice, and it's going to be visible. Everybody's going to see how they're sacrificing. But I want you to 32:21 go to a deeper level of sacrifice. I'm going to pour you out. It will make their sacrifice even better, but nobody will even know that you did it." The drink offering on the sacrifice of others. All right. I I know if I really 32:36 described it, or even fully understood it, but I want that, whatever Paul had. I want this secret sacrifice. If God can make my sacrifice even more hidden, in in other words. Make my service to you even more hidden, Lord. Hide it. And I have to do that, 32:52 you know, as elders we're more visible. We have to fight for that even more. The more I speak and preach, the more I have to say, "Lord, I want to I want this drink offering version that Paul, Philippians was perhaps the second last 33:05 episode he wrote after before 2 Timothy. He's saying at the end of his life, having preached and planted churches and written scripture, he's saying, "I just want to be the drink offering. I don't need to be visible. Nobody has to quote me. 33:18 Nobody has to cite me. Nobody has to know me. I just want to be the drink offering. God has seen." This is what it means to die. You really seen Jesus, you will see he was He was content to die. You know, says in Hebrews 33:33 uh 13, it is it? But he's died outside the camp. That means he didn't even want a place in the middle of the town, all the attention of Jesus' sacrifice. He says, Not it's it's bad enough that he's dying, but he says, "Just go die over 33:48 there." Where all the dung on the You know, he says, "When you If you read the history of the outside the camp, what is it that went outside the camp? You would take the bull and the and all the take apart take out all the 34:02 guts and the dung, it says. The dung from this cow that you're about to kill, you take that and you burn it outside the camp. And Jesus says, "Yeah, put me with the dung." You want that kind of a sacrifice? This is Jesus inviting us to follow him 34:19 in in reproach, in shame. And this is the This is from that dung heap that God lifts up his servants, his kings and queens. Mhm. And then Jesus invites you to be a son with him. 34:36 Hebrews chapter 3, our service to him is not as servants, but as a son. The contrast is shown to us in Hebrews chapter 3. The difference between a son serving his dad and an employee serving that same person. Let's say a man owns a company. 34:53 He's got an employee and a son. There's a difference between how those two will serve. The employee is looking at the clock. Even the best employee might stay overtime, but he says, "You've got to pay me overtime." And and he might say, "Okay, it's fine, 35:05 but I'm I've got other things to do. I've got my own wife and children and my own father to take care of. This I'm just doing as a business relationship we have. And you take care of me, I take care of you." I'll ask you, dear young people, are you 35:20 in a business relationship with your father in heaven? "Lord, give me a good marriage. Help me to find the right partner. Give me a good job. Give me enough money to live. Uh all these things and I'll give you my life." 35:33 It's a business contract. And then there's the son who says, "What's in it for the son? Does the son get a paycheck every 2 weeks?" No. He gets to live with the father. So, Matt, in Hebrews 3 it says, "Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of 35:48 a heavenly calling." He's speaking about our calling and our ministry. You're a partaker of a heavenly calling. Consider who? Don't consider all the Old Testament saints. Moses is the best example. He's going to refer to 36:01 him now. Consider Jesus. Consider Jesus, who when he came down to this earth was tempted in all points as we are, which means what? That he was tempted to have a business relationship with his father. Have you thought about that? 36:16 If you and I are tempted to have that kind of father, you take care of me, I'll take I'll I'll I'll serve you. If I'm tempted to live that kind of a Christian life, Jesus was also. So, when he was here on this earth, I'm 36:27 sure the devil tried to get him to be like, well, "Tell God tell your father tell God why don't you take care of me. Lord, I'll give you I'll die I'll I'll I'll do this I'll go here I'll do that, but you got to do this for me." Did Jesus have that 36:40 mentality? He was tempted, but he didn't. He Consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession. He was faithful to him who appointed him. He also had a job. So, you read verse two like this, that the father in 36:56 heaven gave two people a job. He gave Moses a job and gave Jesus a job. And both of them are faithful. He also was faithful to him who appointed him, as Moses also was in all his house. Moses the employee was faithful. Jesus 37:10 the son was faithful. For he, Jesus, has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, but just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now, 37:25 Moses was faithful in all his house as an employee. The best employee God had in the Old Testament, perhaps, Moses. Top-class employee. And then you go to God and say, "Hey, so who's your favorite?" He says, "No, not Moses. I have a son." 37:44 Now, you might think, well, then okay, of course Jesus was perfect, right? But you know that when he says that you are a partaker of this heavenly calling, you go to your father today, you go to God today. Somebody goes to God and 37:56 says, "Hey, who's your favorite?" He says, "No, not Moses. Santosh." Imperfect. The one who's fallen so much. The one who's sometimes undisciplined. The sometimes who he doesn't look quite live up to how he should be and he doesn't 38:10 get up early enough and sometimes he forgets to read his Bible. That one, that son, because he's a partaker of the holy calling that I gave my eldest son Jesus, he's my favorite. He's serving me as a son. You see what a privilege it is? Now, the 38:25 son doesn't get to have ask ask for a paycheck. If there's no food someday the son knows that the father has also skipped his meal, that they've been working late. Uh and I'm just using an earthly analogy. But if the Lord allows you to suffer 38:39 something if you go through some lack in your life, some period of lack in your life. If you were an employee, you have the right to go to God and say, "Lord, why aren't you treating me like the good employee that I am?" 38:54 But I challenge you, dear brothers and sisters, to a life that's even greater. The life of being a son where you say, "Lord, okay, I didn't get what I wanted, but I'm your son. That's it. You know, I'm your daughter. That's what I want more than anything 39:07 else." Um So, Jesus was faithful as a son. Um this is what I think of when I, you know, when it says, let's look at that Matthew chapter 3. After thousands, hundreds and thousands 39:27 of years of G of of many servants that served him. Moses Abel, Abraham, Elijah, all the prophets, many many servants. It's like uh a CEO who had great employees, line after line. He had lots of bad ones, too. You know, lots of bad kings, bad 39:45 prophets, but he had some good ones. And he says, "All these kind of yeah, vice president Moses, if you will, chief operating officer Moses." And then he says, "But there's my son." And that's the sense I get when you read in 39:59 Matthew 3 verse 17, as Jesus is being baptized and the spirit of God descends on him from verse 16, and lightning on him, and behold a voice out of heaven. It's like the father says, "I've got a son. This is my beloved son 40:16 in whom I'm well pleased. Those are the words he wants to, and I believe is, singing over us. This is my beloved son. This is my beloved daughter. This is my beloved son. This is my beloved daughter. You see God bragging on us in 40:29 heaven. Not because we're perfect. I mean, I I know you you all could tell me stories and stories after stories of how you feel unworthy to be called God's son, and yet he chooses to say, "You are my beloved son, partaker 40:44 of the holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ." If you want to serve Jesus Christ, if you want to serve in ministry, remember you're just a partaker of Jesus Christ. You're just a younger brother, a younger sister of Jesus. Serve him as a son. Lastly, 40:58 Jesus invites you to worship. Matthew 4, read few days later, or a couple months later, Jesus says these words to Satan when Satan invites him to fall down and worship, and I believe what Satan was offering him here in 41:17 Matthew 4:9, he says, "Listen, all these things I will give you if you fall down and worship me." Let's let's think about whom he's asking who he's asking this question to. He's asking this question to a man who has lived perfectly without sin for 30 41:33 years. If you had lived perfectly without sin for 30 years, what is the these things, all these things, that you would want? I'm almost certain it would be, "Give me a ministry. Help me to plan a start a big church. 41:52 And do this miracle, and do that other miracle. Do religious things." He wasn't saying, "Oh, you can have all the wives you want, and all the money you want." I don't think that's what the devil was offering Jesus. He was offering him something religious. 42:05 A ministry. You can have a ministry, Jesus. Bow down and worship me. Make me desire something of What is it to worship Satan? It is to seek self. Promote yourself a little bit. That's the spirit of Satan. And Jesus is com- 42:20 Satan is coming to Jesus and saying, "I'll give you wonderful ministry. You'll You'll preach powerful sermons. You'll do miracles. Just bow a little bit to me. Give in to this spirit of self a little bit that is in me." And Jesus 42:36 says, "Get behind me, Satan. You shall worship the Lord your God and then serve him only." So, worship God and then serve him. You can't serve God unless you're worshipping him. What does it mean to worship God? Let's look at briefly. Turn to John 5 again. 42:54 Later on, after he says, you know, you You read 39 and 40. He continues to speak to the Pharisees and he says, "How can you believe?" Verse 44. John 5, verse 44. 43:13 "How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?" To worship God is to see him as the one and only God. If I asked you, "How many gods are there?" Of course, we're all 43:31 going to say there's only one God. It's another thing for that to be the way we live our lives. Now, let me tell you how you can test yourself. If there's even a little bit of honor seeking in your life, if you care even a little bit about what 43:46 other people think of you, you are a polytheist. You know what a polytheist is? Believes there's many gods. There's the God in heaven, but yet, you're a god, too, because what you say about me matters to me. You see how that's worshipping? 43:59 That's what Jesus was saying. "How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and not the glory from the only God?" There's only one God. Now, the next time you say, "I am a monotheist. I believe there's only one 44:12 God." You say, "Lord, prove it in my life." Doesn't matter whether somebody praises me and says, "Oh, man, that message you gave or that thing you did, I saw you. You were so sacrificial." You're not a god. Doesn't matter to me. 44:25 There's only one God, Lord. Am I pleasing to you? Can you say the same thing about me that you said about Jesus after 30 years of faithfully looking to you that you're pleased with me? This is what it means to worship God, 44:37 that there's only one God. You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only will you serve. You shall have no other gods before me. There's no other god. And when we see that honor seeking and worrying about whether people say good 44:48 things or bad things about me is to treat them as God. Then we say, "Lord, I want to worship you only." To worship God while we serve him also is a beautiful picture. I'll close with this. Matthew chapter 18, the best servants of God 45:06 that you can think of are the angels, better than even any human servant. Thinking about ministry, right? The angels have have a ministry in heaven and on earth. They come down to earth for different tasks, and they're serving in heaven. We don't know 45:20 what all they do in heaven. But they're worshiping first. They're worshiping God. How do the angels serve him? It's a good picture for us on how we should also serve God when we worship. And we're told that in how the angels 45:34 take care of our children. Jesus says in Matthew 18, verse 10, he says, "Be Don't despise one of these little ones." And here he says that there are angels in heaven protecting them. He uses this word their angels, 45:53 which I like to think that means there's at least two for each child. Each child of ours Each child has two angels. And the next time as parents if you when you become parents and you worry about how you're going to take care of your 46:02 children, remember God's got two angels on duty 24/7, even while you're asleep, watching these angels these children of yours. It brings me much comfort. When I'm not around my children, the angels are taking care of them. 46:15 But he says, "How are they watching over them?" I say to you that their angels in heaven are continually watching them to make sure they don't nothing bad happens to them. Is that what your how how your Bible reads? Okay. 46:31 Oh, yeah. It's Matthew 18:10. See that you do not despise one of these little ones, children, for I say to you that their angels in heaven are continually What was the word? Git- jittery? Is that it? Yeah. Continually jittery 46:46 about Oh, oh, Xander's about to go put his finger into the socket. Oh, uh is Kalina is about to, you know, is that how they are? No. They're continually beholding the face of my father. Who's got everything under control. 47:01 He knows that Xander's about to stick that pen into the wall socket before he's even He knows what Xander's thinking. He says, "That two holes, I bet the pen would go very well in there." The father knows that he's going 47:11 to do that, and he and the angel says, "I can't figure out how to do all this, but my father can." And they actually He's not He's He's our father. He's their god. He's just created them. They can't They can't even call him father. 47:24 And they look to him, and the father says, "Hey, just go push Xander over this way." Okay, done. Now go back and look at my father. Continually beholding the face of my father. This is how we serve him. There's a world of need waiting ahead of 47:39 you, dear brothers and sisters. It's It's getting worse. And I think about the people that at this moment are thinking, "I would really rather just take my life right now." And probably will in the next few minutes. I think about that often when I read 47:52 about shooters that will take down people and then kill themselves. They just really Their Their life is so miserable they don't want to live. Really. And then I see poor people. I see people who I hear of stories of children. I 48:06 read a story the other day of a child who was abused. And by his stepfather and then his mother, biological mother and stepfather. And so sad. I think What what are we going to do? We're here as the body of Christ and we need this 48:20 meeting here. And I'm reminded of this. He says, "You behold my face. You keep your eyes fixed on me. I'll show you. If you are if you really keep your eyes fixed on me, you will finish the course that I called you to live. The life that you're called you to 48:39 live. You'll finish your course. Paul finished his course. I remember the story of Peter. I've heard uh uh uh The story handed down from oral tradition says that Peter, you know, I think of this Peter heard the call, "Follow me." He says, "Follow me." 48:59 Towards the end of his life in Jerusalem, Peter was uh was being there was a persecution in Jerusalem. Oral tradition says that Peter was trying to escape that. He knew that they were coming after him as one of the leaders of the apostles. So, he decided 49:11 to leave. And as he's walking out of Jerusalem, he sees Jesus coming back to Jerusalem carrying his cross. And uh Peter's like, "What?" And it's a vision according to the oral tradition. I don't know how true it is, but there's a lesson in it. 49:28 Jesus Peter asks Jesus, "Hey, where are you going?" He says, "I'm going to be crucified again." And immediately Peter knew, "Okay, it's my time to die. I got to follow you." So, he's He turned around and goes back. And they captured him and crucified him. 49:41 And he felt so unworthy even to be crucified in the same way as his Lord that he said, "Hang me upside down." I I mean, that's even more painful, I think. But he says Think about Peter. uh a servant who preached that powerful 49:57 sermon and in a day, in a moment, 3,000 people were born again, genuinely born again. And at the end of his life, he still feels so unworthy. He says, "Lord, what do you mean serve you?" You think Peter had high thoughts about I'm a 50:09 servant of the Lord? Jesus said, "Upon this rock I will build my church." All this nonsense that preachers today are after? He says, "Lord, I'm not even worthy to die in the same way as you died." So, they had to hang him upside down. 50:21 This is the spirit of service, continually beholding the face of your father.
