A Tale of Two Servants

This morning, having been reminded about the men and the women who have given their lives to serve and protect this great nation that we live in and having also been honored with Ms. Nancy Sheldon and her sharing about the missions work in Guatemala, it really puts into perspective, the topic that I wanted to share with you this morning.

You know, when you think about a soldier and the life that they choose, or even have been thrust into, you see a path that has to be walked and it is a path that many do not desire, nor ever want to have to walk themselves. The same thing with that of a missionary, in the life of a Christian.

Many, many Christians say that they hope to never have to serve in a missionary's role. Many also say that the very reason that they give towards missions, is so that someone else can go and do it; but just not them!

In both cases, that of a soldier and that of a missionary, it requires the person to give up their comforts and their amenities in life and pursue a life that is filled with sacrifice and selflessness!

If I were to ask for a show of hands this morning of who could say that they look forward to giving up things in your life that are counted as comfort and going after a life that is devoid, many, many times over, of such amenities to selflessly serve others, often dangerous and hostile environments; who would jump up and say, “Yes, that is what I am looking forward to. Sign me up!”

Not many of us, right?

And as much as we talk about in church services and Bible studies, the necessity of being a servant and having the servant’s heart, it is something completely different when you introduce the cost of being a servant within the kingdom of God!

We just talked last Sunday, with it being the ministry fair that we had here, about becoming servants. And my heart was touched by those who responded and reached out to begin serving here at Cumberland Worship Center.

Although, let me emphasize to you, that if some of you just now felt a sigh of relief in your hearts, and said to yourself, “ OOHHH, good, other people signed up, so I’m safe for another year!” To this, I say, “NAY, NAY”!

I am going to start praying such a burden on people’s hearts for serving and ministry, that you will either begin to yield and serve within the body of Christ, or you will have to move Afghanistan to try and outrun the call of being a servant from God on your life! (P.s. running will not work either; just ask someone like Jonah!)

Now, real quick before we move into the passage for this morning, let me ask you a couple of things.

What do most people say that they want to see happen throughout their walk with the Lord, here on earth?

Allow me to expound a little on this to help you some. Do most Christians want to see an increase in the power of the Lord in their lives, or a decrease? Do most Christians want to have greater intimacy and knowledge with the Father, or less intimacy and knowledge with Him and about Him?

The other question then, is how do you view your walk with the Lord right now and your role as His servant?

This is like one of these Nielson Rating questions:

Would you say that your role as a kingdom servant is excellent; adequate; neutral; less than adequate; or horrible?

Relax, I am not here this morning to start asking everyone to serve; we did that last week!

What I am wanting to do, though, is read from the word and look at an example of two different servants and the outcome of their choices for serving!

I feel fairly confident that I can mention the name of the prophet Elijah and most everyone here will recognize that name from the OT, right?

How many here, remember the account of Elijah and his being sent to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem and of how the the three men, named Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, opposed him in doing so? (Just checking to see if you were really following me here?)

Seriously though, Elijah was a great prophet and servant of almighty God.

Was he the only the prophet, the only servant listed within the OT? NO, most definitely not. In fact there are many throughout the OT. Both those whom were faithful and listened and hearkened to the voice of God, as well as those who rebelled against God and served false gods!

You may be thinking, “Well, if they rebelled against God and served other gods, then they were not servants of Jehovah”, right?

Understand this, there is no authority that exists on earth, Jew, gentile, man or woman, who is not allowed to exist by the power and authority of God. ,

Romans 13:1 ESV

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

So, even the great pagan king, Nebuchadnezzar, was listed as a servant of God, by God Himself in .

The thing that I am driving towards here is that, there were many “servants” for God (good and bad alike) and that from the OT and moving forward throughout the NT, the process of multiplying and making more servants, has always been in place.

In Genesis, God gave the mandate to multiply and be fruitful and subdue the earth. The continuum of multiplication has never been rescinded and it was even stressed with Jesus giving the Great Commission before He ascended back to heaven.

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

So, as it is today, so it was in the days of Elijah, (strange, but for some reason, that brings a song to my mind) there were servants being trained up and instructed in serving the Lord, as we are about to look at!

You know, with us observing Memorial Day this weekend and also me speaking about Elijah and the Days of Elijah, I wanted to show you about 30 seconds of something, real quick that touched my heart. These are U.S. Marines that you are about to see. (Play YouTube video: 1:40-3:05 approx)

You know, I find it interesting of how Elijah come onto the scene, it’s just boom and there he is , ,

1 Kings 17:1 ESV

Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”

That, my friends, is authority; that is power! That is what it looks like when you walk in the anointing of the Lord!

He speaks, you listen and go! Everything else is covered by Him! I LOVE IT!!!!!

Think about this, great was the prophet Elijah, in fact, it is the prophet Elijah and his ministry that is mentioned at the closing of the OT in ,

Malachi 4:5–6 ESV

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

This, being mentioned again by the messenger angel, Gabriel, about the birth of John the baptist in , in which he said that John would prepare the way before the Christ, “in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.”

It is the prophet Elijah, along with the great servant and leader Moses, who appeared and spoke with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, in front of Peter, James and John.

It is the prophet Elijah, along with the great servant and leader Moses, who appeared and spoke with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, in front of Peter, James and John. (Possibly representing the law and the prophets before the death and resurrection of Jesus and ultimately His second and glorious return as King of all)

And some even speculate that it will, again, be Elijah and Moses that return as the two witnesses in .

The overall point being, is that Elijah was a great and mighty prophet and a great and mighty SERVANT of the Lord God!

It is Elijah who calls out King Ahab, in , during the prophesied drought that was still going on and gives him the challenge that would take place on Mount Carmel (which , it turns out, was like the stronghold of Baal worship; the belly of the beast, if you will) to determine whose god was the real God. (The sort of spiritual show down at high noon!)

Listen to what Elijah says to the people of Israel when they convene before him at Mt. Carmel, in ,

1 Kings 18:21 ESV

And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.

Notice any similarity to this familiar passage from Joshua, “Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Then again in , Jesus says this to the church, “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! 16 But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!

Do you see a recurring question? God is clear, choose Me or the other; do not try and serve both!

(ELABORATE ON THIS ACCOUNT!)

It is at the end of chapter 18 and this account, that we see Elijah pray again for the rain to come. It is also here, for the first of only two times, that the 1st servant of Elijah is mentioned.

The servant is told to go and look out and see if he saw anything coming that would resemble rain. (This took place for 7 times and then a cloud the size of a man’s fist appeared!)

How many know that it can take a few prayers before you see relief coming and that you are to go, with expectancy and belief and look for the answer!

The servant was then told to go and tell Ahab to pack up his pick-nick and head back home. Rain was coming!

The next and only other time that this servant is mentioned, is in the next chapter (chapter 19). ,

1 Kings 19:3 ESV

Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

1 Kings 19:1–3 ESV

Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

That’s it! That is the life and times of Isaiah’s first servant, named, ______________! We don’t even get a name for this guy!

This servant never questioned, never argued. I mean, this guy has witnessed the fire of God being called down by Elijah and the 3 years of drought being restored as Elijah prays and when the pressure is on, he just takes the quick and easy way out!

Let me says this real quick, while we are here at this point and talking about names and recognition!

Many people think that what they do and their service within the kingdom goes unnoticed and that they are never recognized (and although this is never to be the reason for why you serve), I want to point out something to you.

How many of you recognize the names Shiphrah and Puah?

Probably not many!

Well, in the book of Exodus, when the new king of Egypt called the Hebrew midwives together and told them that they were to kill the newborn Hebrew baby boys, as they saw them being born, the Hebrew midwives feared God more than the king and they didn’t carry out his decree.

The Bible says that because they feared Him and did what was right, He dealt well with them and gave them families.

The two names that I mentioned, were two of the midwives that were present during this whole time. Why were their names mentioned? Because, even when you do not think that anyone else notices your actions, God notices and because of this, their names are recorded within the Bible for all times! (Even the name of the Pharaoh name isn’t mentioned, yet their names are!)

Your actions are to never be done for man’s approval; only for that of God!

So, here we go with the other servant and the more well known of the two. In , following the command of God, Elijah calls Elisha to become his servant, that is, his future replacement! ,

1 Kings 19:19–21 ESV

So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.

In

In , we read of the account of Elijah preparing to be taken up with God and of how he interacted with Elisha.

ELABORATE about how each time the sons-of-the-prophets would ask him, “Did you know that the LORD is going to take your master away from you today?” and he wouldn’t cave to those thoughts, but would hold strong to the destiny that he had before him.

How strong was the anointing that resided upon Elisha, well, according to , after he was dead, a group of men were putting a body in the tomb he was placed in and when the man’s body touched the bones of Elisha, the man came back to life and stood up!

s 1321

Those questions that were posing the negative and doubtful thoughts to Elisha, were coming from his peers! (How many here today know that just because something comes from someone at your church, doesn’t mean that it’s from God or that it’s for you! LEARN TO HEAR YOUR FATHER’S VOICE!!)

Two servants, each serving under the same master and with the potential to move forward in favor and authority, yet there was a stark difference between them; one wasn’t willing to go the distance, to walk the path of discomfort and the other was relentless and held onto and embraced the future to which he was called!

Tyndale House Publishers. (2013). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.

Many Christians today want that increase in power and ability, yet they are not willing to truly do what is required to get there! (Every time someone says something negative to them, they falter and moan)

says,

2 Peter 1:1–2 ESV

Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.