Useful To The Master, Part 4
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Charlie Kirk’s death has impacted the world in ways that I never thought possible.
Word of revivals popping up all over the place.
People who had never been to church or had not been in a long time are going to church.
It’s amazing the good that God is bringing out of the tragedy.
and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
Interestingly enough, today’s message will look at an important piece of this current good work of God.
Because Charlie was God’s Bond-Servant and that’s what we’re going to look at today.
Doulos - Bond Servant
Doulos - Bond Servant
What is a bond-servant?
What is a bond-servant to do?
How is a bond-servant to respond to controversial or heretical matters?
Read 2 Timothy 2:21-26
Review
We are to be an honorable vessel cleansed of false teaching, sanctified by God, with a readiness knowing that He wants to use us, and equipping ourselves to do what He has already gifted and prepared us to do.
What Is A Bond-Servant?
What Is A Bond-Servant?
Switches metaphors once again.
Doulos - slave / servant
OT background.
Although the basic word and meaning in Hebrew is used in the way we think of for slavery.
“You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today.
The Jews did not use it in that way because God redefined it for His people.
“If your kinsman, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you, then he shall serve you six years, but in the seventh year you shall set him free...“It shall come about if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he fares well with you; then you shall take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your servant forever...
Leviticus says if a fellow countryman becomes so poor that he sells himself to you...
Willingly comes into this relationship initially.
Indentured servitude.
Although this Aramaic word is translated as doulos in the Greek OT, known as the Septuagint, many times throughout the OT, there is another Greek word used to give it a different nuance.
Oiketes - Household or domestic servant.
Like a butler or a maid.
A doulos in the OT may serve in many ways as the Aramaic word was translated different ways.
Officers
Officials
Ambassadors
Servant
It is a title of honor when conferred on such people as Moses, Joshua, Abraham, David and others.
It is an honor to be called a servant of Yahweh.
From this mindset: The King of the Universe chose you to help Him.
With the most outstanding reference to the Messiah in the OT being: Servant of the Lord.
NT application.
Applied to Jesus
The Messiah was called the servant of the Lord.
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.
Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
Jesus made references several times to His disciples also becoming bond-servants.
So Paul brings that forward and applies it to Timothy here as a servant of God.
Minister of the Gospel.
God chose Timothy to help Him deliver the Word of God.
Present Day application
Doulos carries with it the mindset, then, of being sanctified.
Sanctified - Setting oneself aside to voluntarily serve the Master.
As such, the thrust of the word doulos as applied to believers is not about one’s socio-economic status or physical subjugation, but rather as the attitude of the mind and heart that will by nature flow out in joyful obedience.
And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
doula - trained, non-medical professional who provides continuous emotional, physical, and informational support.
They have committed their lives to assisting women in pregnancy, labor, delivery, and post partum care.
They provide techniques for pain management like massage and counterpressure, helping with birthing positions, offering encouragement and acting as an advocate to help the client feel empowered and safe during labor.
Can we serve with the same proper mindset?
Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.
We serve Christ out of love and not just obligation.
Just like Jesus was a bond-servant of God, Mary was a bond-servant of God, Paul and Timothy were a bond-servants of Jesus, and Charlie was a Bond-servant of the Jesus, so too, we are to be bond-servants of Christ.
We are called servants of the Lord.
It is why we use the term Lord and Master.
Just like Jesus, our bond-servant, went to His death and subsequently after His resurrection, the church was born.
So after Charlies’ death, we see a rebirth of sorts happening.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.
So, too, are we ready to die for Jesus?
Maybe the better question, today, is, “Are you ready to live for Jesus?”
That is what a Doulos looks like.
What is a Bond-Servant to Do?
What is a Bond-Servant to Do?
Flee
Flee (to escape due to danger)
youthful lusts
“epithumia” - Irregular and inordinate appetite and lust.
Not normal or beyond acceptable limits.
Tends to be the base desires gone over board or awry.
Impulsive and a lack of moderation.
You can’t just go and do what you want to do, when you want to do, how you want to do it, and without self-restraint.
We need to recognize the danger of that mindset and flee it.
These things are the exact opposite of being a bond=sre
Pursue
Pursue - to follow hard after
“in pursuit of” with earnestness and diligence “do your best”
max effort with the goal and desire of obtaining
Flee youthful desires and follow after righteousness...
“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Righteousness
We pursue the way that God does things.
Conforming our life to the God’s standard.
When we do things God’s way, everything will work out.
Scripture helps us understand and learn the standard of righteousness.
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
Faith
to win over or persuade.
subjectively - conviction, belief in the truth of something.
to be firmly convinced
Objectively - that which is believed - doctrine
study...
To be firmly convinced of what we believe and why we believe it.
Love - agape
doing what’s best for others
For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
We serve others because we love them.
Ties right into being a bond-servant.
We speak the truth in love.
Peace
every kind of good thing that brings tranquility
equivalent word to shalom...
harmony rather than argumentativeness
If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.
Peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
Other believers.
There should be peace with those who are pure in heart.
Are we fighting with each other or fighting together against the enemy?
With as in - the company of others.
The quest for holiness should not have to be a lonely journey.
It should be pursued in community.
edification
accountability
mutual care and concern
iron sharpens iron
etc.
Refuse
foolish
morally worthless
ignorant
also translated non-sensical and absurd.
ignorant of the truth vs. 25
speculations
Used by the Greeks to indicate philosophical inquiry.
But, in the NT an exchange of words rather than a true search.
Refuse morally worthless, non-sensical, absurd and trivial philosophical arguments from people who are untaught as to the truth and who don’t really want to know the truth.
Don’t engage. A waste of time. People who want to argue just to argue.
It breeds quarreling.
a nod to earlier in the chapter.
wrangling about words
worldly and empty chatter
How is a Bond-Servant to Respond to Disagreements?
How is a Bond-Servant to Respond to Disagreements?
What To Do
Able to teach - didaktikos - able to communicate Christian teaching, apt or skilled in teaching.
This is first of all directed towards leadership as not all are equipped to teach.
Even though this is first directed towards those in leadership, there are still principles to adhere to.
Correcting those in opposition
Don’t do as Allen said, just give them my phone number.
Show clip of Preacher Beeper.
We still need to be informed enough to have a basic conversation.
Then, as Allen said, give them my phone number.
What Not To Do. (vs 24)
Do not quarrel.
This is what Charlie was trying to do. Not perfectly, mind you, but it was his heart.
This does not mean we cannot disagree with one another in the church, or even have a spirited debate about a certain point of doctrine.
How?
Remember theses people are broken and hurting and are just trying to full their broken cisterns with muddy water from other broken cisterns.
Kindness - placid, gentle, mild, easy, compliant
Patient when wronged - not what I thought. One who bears with evil, endures evil. Ironically, the main synonym for this word would be the word tolerance. Bearing evil without resentment.
forbearing of people’s unkindness, patient towards their foolishness and tolerant of their foibles.
and the antonym would be merciless.
Gentleness - meekness, humility, courtesy, considerateness.
In the end we are seeing the Fruit of the Spirit here.
How to debate a point of doctrine with a fellow believer.
is it done in love and humility?
what’s the attitude of the heart?
what’s the motivation?
is it civil?
what kind of language is coming out of our mouths in the course of our discourse.
Is it a bantering of ideas or about being right?
Is it for edification or to tear down?
Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.
Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.
Are you trying to "win" the argument or just inform of your position?
Are you willing to agree to disagree? Can you let it go?
For those in opposition: the hoped for result?
This is what Charlie was hoping and praying for.
If perhaps God may grant them repentance
Why? That they may come to their senses
They are drunk, drugged, and deceived.
Satan’s goal to capture men’s minds
The word means to come out of a drunken stupor
in some ways, it’s a spiritual intoxication.
Seeds impregnated with drugs...to capture birds.
The lie is the drug slipped into the drink.
Don’t even realize what they are doing.
Having been held captive by the devil to do his will.
Opposed to the truth (those in opposition) (vs 25)
By nature of not knowing the truth, they behave accordingly.
Why do we expect a non-believer to act like a believer?
We get so upset at people who use the Lord’s name in vain, are drunkards, or liars when they are just behaving according to their belief system.
They are just acting out who they are.
We can’t expect a non-Christian to act like a Christian.
If by the grace of God they will hear the truth and accept the truth, then by knowing the truth, the truth will set them free.
By accepting the truth it will naturally lead to repentance.
Really repentance is a by-product of knowing and accepting the truth.
This is praying for God’s truth to fix their broken cistern and then filling it to overflowing with his living water.
Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
This is why Paul talks so much about cleansing ourselves from the lies of Satan and knowing, learning, guarding, properly dividing, teaching, and passing on the truth here in 2 Timothy.
And it’s what we are to strive to do as well
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
To be useful to the master we must have the mindset of a doulos; voluntarily committing to flee youthful lusts, and pursue to do things His way and by His means.
We must also, when possible, pursue peace and correct those in opposition to our faith in love and from a pure heart and refuse pointless and fruitless arguments.
Knowing that they are under the spell of Satan and need the antidote of truth, praying that they will hear and receive it.
Then we trust God to do His part and allow the truth to bring about repentance.
Larger Summaries:
Larger Summaries:
Summary of mini series of being useful to the Master
To be vessels useful to the Master we must be clean, emptied of self, filled with the Holy Spirit, ready and willingly available.
Summary of all metaphors used in chapter 2.
The Message of 2 Timothy 9. Metaphor VI: The Lord’s Servant (Verses 23–26)
As good soldiers, law-abiding athletes and hardworking farmers, we must be utterly dedicated to our work. As unashamed workmen we must be accurate and clear in our exposition. As vessels for noble use we must be righteous in our character and conduct. And as the Lord’s servants we must be courteous and gentle in our manner. Thus each metaphor concentrates on a particular characteristic which contributes to the portrait as a whole, and in fact lays down a condition of usefulness.
Closing Song: I Thank God.
