Good morning, brothers and sisters. My name is Dana Condon. This is my twenty-ninth year at Richmond. The first couple of years I came, I had no idea what was going on. I was one of those new people.
How many people are here for the first time this year? Raise your hand. That’s quite amazing—very few.
As you know, I’ll be speaking to this group here. The young people are out studying Moses. They get to talk about Moses; you get to see Moses.
I do not know why it is, but some of the young people come up in the hall and say, “Hi, Moses.” Of course, there is the other group I do not like quite so well. I come up and they say, “Hi, Santa Claus.” Somewhere in between.
Actually, I am just Dana Condon, and I come from New York.
Before we read the Scriptures, let us pray and amen the song we just sang. May the Lord speak to us today.
Father, we come to You in the name of our Lord Jesus. He is the living Word. Many hearts are here set on service, but unless we hear, we do not know what to do.
We find ourselves pressed with a desire to serve, and yet not knowing what to do. So we say, as Samuel did, “Speak, Lord, Thy servant heareth.”
As we study the Word of God this morning, begin to speak to our hearts about things large and small. Root out things that have confused our hearing, and clarify. Grant, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the grace to be called servants in these last days.
For all these things are the desire of our heart, and You know our hearts as they are laid bare before You. O Lord, help us, we pray. In Jesus’ name, amen.
I would like for us to turn to a number of Scriptures. I hope you have a Bible with you. We would like to begin in the Old Testament, in Isaiah 42.
I would like to read the first four verses.
Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold;
My chosen One in whom My soul delights.
I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the nations.
He will not cry or raise His voice,
Nor make His voice heard in the street.
A bruised reed He will not break,
And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish;
He will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not be disheartened or crushed
Until He has established justice in the earth;
And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law.
This prophetic announcement of the coming Servant of the Lord finds its fulfillment in Matthew 12.
Departing from there, Jesus went into their synagogue.
And a man was there whose hand was withered, and they questioned Jesus, asking, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” so that they might accuse Him.
And He said to them, “What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out?
How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”
He stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other.
The Pharisees went out and conspired against Him as to how they might destroy Him. But Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. Many followed Him, and He healed them all and warned them not to tell who He was.
This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet:
Behold, My Servant whom I have chosen;
My beloved in whom My soul is well pleased.
I will put My Spirit upon Him,
And He shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
He will not quarrel, nor cry out,
Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.
A battered reed He will not break off,
And a smoldering wick He will not put out,
Until He leads justice to victory.
And in His name the Gentiles will hope.
Then we want to turn to 2 Timothy 2, where we find one of our conference theme verses. We will read a somewhat larger portion because it gives us some definition, or illustration, of a servant.
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.
But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness.
And their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already taken place; and they upset the faith of some.
Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.”
Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and earthenware; and some to honor and some to dishonor.
Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.
Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels.
The Lord’s bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged,
with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,
and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.
We have presented before us, here in 2 Timothy, exhortations for you and I as servants—for those who desire to be servants of the living God.
There are many people serving God today. We thank the Lord. There are brothers and sisters with the children, dear sisters and brothers in the nursery, and many behind the scenes serving. Many around the world are serving in all kinds of ways: some serving the Lord, some serving His house, some serving one another.
Many servants; many motives.
Some serve out of selfish ambition. We know some serve for money. We know some serve to get at people. Many motives, many ambitions, many methods of serving, many teachings.
There are many people who are servants of God, but we see here in 2 Timothy that there are some whom God approves and some whom He disapproves.
The church is this large house mentioned in verse 20. There are vessels of gold and silver, but also vessels of wood and earthenware; some to honor and some to dishonor.
There are servants of God who are a dishonor in the house of God, and some who are noble and honorable. There are some of gold and silver, and some of wood and relatively useless.
All of God’s children are vessels in the house, and all of God’s children are servants.
When we claim Jesus as our Master, from that moment on we are considered servants. We may be good servants or bad servants, but we are servants.
The enemy knows we are servants and is always trying to stumble us, distract us, or somehow get us, in his sneaky ways, to hold some other master than the Lord Jesus.
Recently, I have been doing a Bible study in New York in the book of Revelation. The young people who have been gathering have often been quite surprised by whom the Lord commends and whom He tells to repent.
From the heavenly point of view, often those who are weak the Lord commends, and those who are strong the Lord rebukes. It is quite interesting how the Lord looks at the heart, how the Lord sees things in a different way than we do.
The Lord is the Master, and we are the servants.
Before we talk about serving, I want to bring all our ideas of service, serving, and servanthood before our Lord, who alone is called the Servant of the Lord.
I will be speaking on serving His house. My other two brothers will be speaking on serving the Lord and serving one another. But before we talk in these different veins, I thought it would be good that we place ourselves next to Him. That is our starting place.
In Matthew 10, we have a simple word from the Lord which, if we are honest about what it means, is our undoing.
A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master.
It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master.
Here is the simple sentence I would like to bring to us this morning as an exhortation:
It is enough for a slave to become like his master.
This is the standard with which we come to be servants of the Lord. It is enough for the slave to become like his master.
We are taking up a very large issue this morning: the matter of the Master and the servant. We could almost say that one of the themes throughout the Bible is the Master and the servant.
Let us start by looking at the end. Turn to Revelation 22.
There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bondservants will serve Him.
Here is the end: the Master and the servant in perfect symbiosis, a perfect flow of life. Something comes from the throne, and something is responded back perfectly.
When all the curse is gone, all the distractions of other masters are wiped out, and there is a new heaven and a new earth, you and I will be serving perfectly—a perfect Master. The perfect Master and perfect servants in a perfect life that goes on forever and ever.
Revelation 7 gives us another glimpse:
These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them.
What a beautiful picture this is. We see what service is all about. What is service? It is a response to a perfect Master.
Why do they serve Him day and night? Because they have been washed by the blood of the Lamb. The natural response to being washed and saved is responsive service, surrender, and grace. We call that service.
We were created to serve Him, to be for His pleasure.
Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.
We were made to worship Him. That is when all our parts are working properly—when we are worshipers and servants of our God. He pours life into us, and we respond back. This service will go on forever.
But there were problems along the way. There was a split between the Master and the servants because of sin.
There is a great mystery of rebellion that goes back to when the angels rebelled and said, “Enough of this serving. I am going to be like God.” Satan set on a course of pride and independence, and he deceived man into taking a root of independence and rebellion from the one Master who could do them any good.
The irony is that man still lives in rebellion today. We say, “No more submission. No more obey. No more masters. We do it my way.”
Because we are made to be servants, we are made to need masters. As soon as we leave the one Master to whom we were meant to be attached, we immediately take another master.
Whether the master is money, pride, self-love, drugs, alcohol, or whatever it may be, it masters us, oppresses us, and brings us into bondage. We were born with the need for a master.
But here is the good news of the Bible: God alone is the noble Master who can produce noble servants.
Could you imagine Christians being noble servants—no murmuring, no complaints, free and in that freedom serving completely, overflowing with responsive allegiance to the Master? This is indeed the good news.
For men to come to this place of noble servanthood, there has to be a transformation. Why? Because man by himself, and in his efforts, cannot please God.
Turn with me to Acts 17, where Paul is preaching to the Athenians.
The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands;
nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things.
God is not served by human hands as if He needed something from us. Think about that.
There are people who are not transformed by this noble Master, and yet they want to serve. Everybody gets religious fever at certain moments. We say, “Okay, I am going to serve. I am going to start going to church. I am going to be a better husband. I am going to teach my kids the right way.”
God does not need that—our hands serving God on our own terms.
We often come to serve Him by our own natural doing. We choose the ways we want to serve Him. This is natural to us, but it is not acceptable to God.
We have to be transformed by surrendering to the Master. In that surrender is a transformation where grace enables us to serve Him—not out of our life, strength, will, and ideas, but by His grace.
Paul testified, “I was the chief of sinners. I persecuted the Christians.” But then he said, “By the grace of God I am what I am.”
Serving is not you and I serving. It is joining the Lord as He is serving by the life that He gives us.
The third thing is that His training ground for learning how to serve is the house of God.
In 2 Timothy 2, this large house—with all kinds of vessels, some good and some bad, some noble and some ignoble—is the training ground. In the midst of it, that is where we are trained to serve.
There are those who call themselves Christians and say they minister to the Lord, but they have nothing to do with the house. They are independent of the house, above the house, beyond the house, or up in the heavenly house.
They do all their ministering to the Lord, but whenever they go to God’s house, they are the most frictional people there. There is something wrong there.
Others take it upon themselves to serve mankind and other people, but they do it on their own and not in conjunction with the house. They are not learning the lessons of the house. Often what they do is uncommanded works and things that bear little fruit.
The Lord says, “Do you want to be My servant? Learn to be My servant in the house.”
The reality of serving the Lord and serving one another is tested in the house.
I would like to inspire us by recalling briefly how beautiful God’s servants are. The Lord wants us to be like that.
Our standard is higher. Jesus said, “Be ye perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.” This is much the same thing when He says it is enough for a slave to be like his master.
The first thing we have to catch hold of is a vision of the servant—the beauty of the servant.
Young people, I want you to understand that the servants given to us as examples in the Bible are given to us because you can be like that.
By the grace of God, I want to encourage you: in the eyes of God, there is nothing more beautiful than a faithful servant.
Let us consider Jacob in Genesis 32. A number of times in the Bible it says, “Jacob, My servant.” God not only said, “Jacob, My servant,” but also, “Jacob I loved.”
Then he said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” But he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
Jacob is a picture of the beauty of a servant who holds on to the Lord. That is beautiful. No wonder God said, “I love Jacob.” Why? Because he is hanging onto My leg, and he will never let Me go.
Jacob was born a grabber. In the end, he learned who to grab hold of. At the beginning he grabbed onto his brother, and throughout his life he was a grabber. But God loved him because he always wanted to grab the things of God.
Do you want to grab the birthright, the blessing, the gifts, the ministries? Do you want to serve God? Do you have this grabbing life? That is wonderful—but God will have to deal with it.
Jacob tried to grab this and that. In the end, he would cheat, steal, lie, and especially do what his mother told him. He ended up running away, then gathering wives, children, sheep, and possessions.
When Esau was coming, Jacob did not know what to grab. But that night, wrestling with the Lord, he grabbed hold of the Lord and let go of everything.
“Lord, I cannot let You go now. You have wounded me. I have no more defense. I cannot be sneaky anymore. I cannot run away from anything. I am holding onto You. You are it.”
The Lord said, “That is right. Now you have got it.”
Jacob became a blesser. God got his fingers unwrapped from around his inheritance, his children, his family, and the whole thing. He gained Bethel, the house of God. He became a blessing to others because he knew who to grab: he grabbed only the Lord.
Young person, if you are pursuing the Lord and want to grab the Lord, know that the Lord loves that. He may have to deal with you and your motives, but He loves you, you grabber. Get hold of the Lord. That is a beautiful servant.
Let us turn to Numbers 12 and think about Moses.
There was a complaint between Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Moses was a great man of God—except in his own family. Miriam and Aaron complained because Moses had married someone they did not approve of.
God said:
Hear now My words:
If there is a prophet among you,
I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a vision.
I shall speak with him in a dream.
Not so, with My servant Moses;
He is faithful in all My household.
With him I speak mouth to mouth,
Even openly, and not in dark sayings,
And he beholds the form of the Lord.
Why then were you not afraid
To speak against My servant Moses?
Moses was called the servant of the Lord. It is a wonderful appellation, and there is good reason for it: he was faithful in all God’s house.
He was a pursuer. He ministered to the Lord on the mountain and said, “Lord, show me Your glory. I want to see You, even if it kills me. I want to see You.”
When the children at the bottom of the mountain said, “No, God, do not speak to us,” Moses said, “Not only speak to me; show me Yourself.”
There is a faithful servant.
But he was not only on the mountain alone with God. Down in the house, when the tabernacle was built, he spent day and night worshiping God, listening to His voice, and giving counsel. He served the people out of the house. He was faithful in His house.
Moses could not truly be God’s servant until he was drained of all his own strength and ability. He spent forty years learning how to be a master in Egypt, and then forty years learning how to be a servant in the desert.
When, at eighty years old, he was a stuttering sheep herder, the Lord said, “Now, Moses, you are ready to be My servant.”
Moses said, “Who am I?”
God said, “You are that bush right over there. That old worthless bush—but notice, it is on fire.”
The bush was on fire with the fire of God and was not burning up. “You be My bush, Moses, and I will take you wherever I want, but I will keep you on fire.”
Moses’ servanthood was beautiful because he would go up and talk with God, come down, and his face would glow. When his face was not glowing, he was on fire—and it was God’s fire, not his own fire.
What serving the Lord will do! He was kept by the fire of God.
We go now to 1 Samuel 3. Here is the beauty of a hearing servant.
Then the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.”
There are so many saints in the house of God, and therefore so many servants. But often the Word of God is rare, even in the church.
When Samuel came on the scene, this was the heavenly perspective on Israel: the Word of God was rare. Nobody heard God anymore.
There were leaders, elders, a high priest, and a high priest’s family. They were supposed to hear the Lord. But nobody was hearing the Lord until a little boy grew up and learned how to be faithful in the house.
How did God prepare him to hear? Sweep up the house. Open the door. Close the door. Get a sandwich for Eli.
Samuel was living in the house, given to the Lord since he was a little boy. All he was doing was little things in the house—being faithful, faithful, faithful.
He kept himself from the contamination of Eli’s corrupt sons. He kept himself pure, and the Lord spoke to him.
The Lord appeared again at Shiloh, because the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.
The Word of the Lord came to Israel through one boy who heard.
I am very thankful for young people, because some have kept themselves pure despite all that has gone on and all the temptation. When I hear a young person share something they have heard from God, it delights my soul. I know it delights the Father in heaven.
The Master loves it when His servants hear His voice.
Psalm 132 speaks of David, another servant of God. These verses touch on the beauty of the worshiping servant.
Remember, O Lord, on David’s behalf,
All his affliction;
How he swore to the Lord
And vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob,
“Surely I will not enter my house,
Nor lie on my bed;
I will not give sleep to my eyes
Or slumber to my eyelids,
Until I find a place for the Lord,
A dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.”
David grew up a worshiper. Under the stars he began writing songs. His heart was transformed by the Lord. He loved the Lord and saw something of His majesty and greatness.
The Lord made him a servant—a true servant in the caves, in the days when Saul was trying to kill him. Yet in all that time, he kept looking to the Lord.
In David’s heart there was found such beauty that it was said he had a heart after God. In the caves, he was thinking about the Lord, the kingdom, and something nobody had thought about since Moses had prophesied it centuries before.
He said, “The Lord needs a house.”
When he became king, he still had this burden. “I have my palace, but I cannot sleep or rest until God has a house.”
Something in his heart said, “This is not right. It is not right for a servant to have a bigger house than the Master.”
David made a vow. It is wonderful when a servant vows a vow to the Lord. You can only get into glorious trouble if you make a vow to the Lord—so do it.
David could not build the house, but he said, “Then I will get all the stuff for it.” He made preparations for the house. What a servant.
We turn to Ezra 7. Ezra is the picture of the studious servant.
For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.
Ezra was of the Levites and was to be involved in the temple, but he was in Babylon. There was no temple. So Ezra set his heart to study the Word. He studied it, practiced it, and lived by it.
Then his day came. He came to Jerusalem. The temple had been built, but much else was left to be done. Ezra began to teach the Word, and the people began to weep.
The words of God came alive. Most of the people had lost Hebrew and had begun to speak Aramaic during the Babylonian captivity. Ezra spoke, and translators had to interpret the Hebrew words because the people knew only Aramaic.
As Ezra spoke, the people’s hearts overflowed. It was a feast. He spoke about the feasts of the Lord, how to serve the Lord, and the singers in the temple. He beautified the whole situation as he expounded the Word of God.
There is such a precious thing when a student of the Word becomes a servant of the Word.
Ezra also saw a prophetic key for understanding the history of Israel: God blessed Israel, and Israel experienced decline, according to their treatment of the house of God.
Those kings who worshiped at the house, refurbished the house, sent offerings to the house, and kept the feasts brought blessing to Israel. Those who set up idols, disregarded the house, and brought it into disrepair brought Israel’s decline.
Daniel is another servant. In Daniel 6, after Daniel had been thrown into the lions’ den, King Darius came at dawn and cried out:
Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you constantly serve, been able to deliver you from the lions?
What a thing for a king to say of Daniel, his secretary of state: “Servant of the living God.”
Daniel was noble, not only high up in the official life of the kings who held Israel in exile, but uncompromised all the way through.
When his detractors made a decree that nobody should pray to anyone but the king, Daniel did not compromise.
When Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house—now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem—and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously.
That is why he was thrown into the lions’ den. He refused not to worship his Master.
Daniel had a conviction woven throughout his book: the heavens rule. Though he served under Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius, and Cyrus, he never compromised this conviction.
When Daniel was given the opportunity to become rich, he did not let wealth become a snare. He kept himself pure and did not defile himself with the king’s table.
Here was a servant who was wealthy and unspoiled. God can bless His servants, but when wealth becomes a snare and mammon becomes their master, they lose their servanthood.
You cannot serve God and mammon. Daniel always, uncompromisingly, served the Lord.
There is one more servant mentioned in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New: “My Servant,” the Servant—even the Lord Jesus.
Isaiah was an amazing servant, a faithful servant, a visionary servant. In Isaiah 40 and following, he unveiled a revelation that there would arise in Israel the quintessential Servant, called by God, “My Servant.”
Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold;
My chosen One in whom My soul delights.
God delights in His Servant. Jesus is the Servant of servants.
What was Jesus’ response?
I delight to do Thy will, O my God.
The two delights meet. The Master delights in the Servant, and the Servant delights in the Master. This is the whole purpose of creation.
Jesus said, in effect, “You do not want bulls, offerings, and religious things. You want Me. And I delight to give You Myself as a sacrifice.”
What a wonderful Servant.
At His baptism, the Father spoke:
This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
In this statement, God brings together Jesus’ sonship and His servanthood. “This is My Son” comes from Psalm 2; “My Servant in whom I am well pleased” comes from Isaiah 42.
The Son is meant to be a servant. The Son responds to the Father with obedience. He is the Son-Servant.
In Matthew 4, the devil tempted Jesus, even offering Him the kingdoms of the world. Jesus said:
You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.
What a Servant. He was uncompromising, greater than Daniel, and could not be put off even by the kingdoms of this world.
In Matthew 12, Jesus went about doing good. He had an amazing combination that nobody had ever had: power and gentleness.
He said to the man with the withered hand, “Stretch out your hand.” Such power the Servant had. He was anointed by the Spirit.
Yet when controversy arose, He went quietly to another place. He was not there to argue, to cause division, or to stand for Himself. He was there to serve among the people—so gentle, so powerful.
The disciples traveled with Jesus, wondering what it was about Him. Then Peter, in a moment of clarity and revelation, said:
You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
People said, in effect, “You are a servant.” Peter said, “You are the Master.”
The mystery of Jesus suddenly dawned on them: the Master became a Servant, and the Servant is the Master. God is a serving God. Jesus is a Servant-King.
That is what it means to be a Master: it is to serve. The Master and servant, separated by rebellion and sin, came together in Jesus.
The Father is just like Him—a noble Master, a good Master, loving, caring, gentle, and powerful.
We look at Jesus and say, “Oh, I wish I could be like that.” Jesus says, “It is enough for you to be like that.”
In Matthew 20, James and John—or their mother—asked whether they could sit at the right and left hand of the throne. The other disciples were indignant, perhaps because they had not thought of it first.
Jesus said:
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.
It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant,
and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave;
just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.
Do you see what it means to serve in the kingdom? It is to be like the Son of Man: to serve and not be served.
The disciples had been fighting about who would be the master. Jesus said, “In My kingdom, it is not like that. You become a slave to everybody.”
No man on earth can do that unless he is transformed by the Servant of God.
Jesus came not only to serve, but to give His life. The ultimate sacrifice of the greatest Servant who ever walked upon the earth.
All the beauty we see in small pictures in the Old Testament was found in Jesus, all wrapped into one. He laid it all down.
Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
Then He said, “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me.”
The greatest passage concerning the Servant is Isaiah 53. We could never be like this in ourselves. We could never lay down our lives for others, because we are not perfect servants. But there was one perfect Servant.
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.
By oppression and judgment He was taken away;
And as for His generation, who considered
That He was cut off out of the land of the living
For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?
His grave was assigned with wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.
As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant,
Will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities.
Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors.
You may be here this morning and have never really laid claim to Jesus as your Master. I hope you can see there is no better Master than Jesus.
He is a Redeemer. He is a Healer. He takes your sins upon Himself. He died on the cross for you and me. This is our Servant-King.
Do you own Him?
If our conference this week makes you desire to be a servant, but you are not owned by Him—if He is not your Master—you cannot serve in the house of God, and you cannot serve the Lord Himself. It is just your doing.
But if you surrender to the Master, to this suffering Servant, who having lived perfectly gave Himself perfectly, then you are called a servant of God.
This is amazing grace. Brothers and sisters who have known the Lord a long time are still amazed by this: the Lord saves us and calls us His servants. Then He calls us His friends.
Do you know that grace? You cannot serve Him on your own, but you can come to Him. He is Lord and Savior, Master. He is the only One who can set us free to become the servants we were meant to be.
Have you made a vow to be a better mother? You cannot do that. Have you made a vow to be a better provider? You cannot do that. Have you made a vow to read your Bible twenty-six chapters a day? You cannot do that.
Have you made a vow that you are going to hold on to the Lord and not let Him go? Oh, how fickle we are.
But if you will just say, “Master,” then you shall be saved.
Come and say, “Behold, Thy servant heareth.” He will begin to speak.
He is so gentle. But before we talk anything about serving God, we have to stand before the One who alone truly serves: our Lord Jesus.
Even sitting at the right hand of the Father, He has a servant’s heart. He is serving us today. If we live by His life, we will find ourselves responding in the same kind of service—service that is profitable, service that is beautiful.
Oh, that the Lord could beautify His house with beautiful servants.
For this we pray.
Lord, as we come to You today, we give You thanks. In Your great servanthood, You suffered all on our behalf. You looked for the joy ahead of You and suffered all the pain, that You could have servants and teach us how to serve.
Thank You, as we gather together at the beginning of this time and consider these matters, that we stand before the One who alone is a faithful Servant.
O God, we are such unprofitable servants before Him. How much we have done of our own energies, our own strength, by our own hand, for our own ambitions. O God, forgive us.
When we see this powerful, gentle Servant of God, we are not surprised that all Your delight is in Him.
By faith, we catch hold of His leg. Lord Jesus, we will not let You go until You bless us with Your servanthood and teach us how to serve.
O God, give us grace in these last days that, in Your large house, there could be vessels of gold and silver, vessels of honor, who serve at Your every will and call.
Teach us, Lord, to be Thy servants. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.