How Can I Serve God?
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
What does it mean to “serve” God?
DOES NOT
It does not mean to do what we want and tack God onto that endeavor.
It does not mean to redefine specific instructions from God.
DOES
It does mean to understand what the will of God is.
It does mean to do the will of God from the heart and until the job is done/He returns.
Concept of Master and Slave.
Master: 26x’s in Luke alone; 48x’s in gospels total.
Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament κύριος, ου, ὁ
κύριος, ου, ὁ strictly, a substantive of the adjective κύριος (strong, authoritative); hence, one having legal power lord, master; (1) in a nonreligious sense; (a) one controlling his own property owner, lord, master (MK 12:9); (b) one having authority over persons lord, master (LU 12:43); (2) as a form of address showing respect sir, lord (JN 4:11); (3) in religious usage, as a designation and personal title for God (MT 1:20) and Jesus Christ (JN 20:18) (the) Lord; translation of the Hebrew adonai, which in the public reading of Scripture replaced the tetragrammaton yhwh
12 So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. 14 “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. 16 “Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. 17 “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
Illustration:
27 At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?” 28 So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?” 30 They went out of the city, and were coming to Him. 31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. 35 “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. 36 “Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 “For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”
In order to do the will of God, we must see His will as food, a necessary element in life.
Without it we die.
The Will of God
The Will of God
What is the will of God?
15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, 16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil. 17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
We have learned that the will of God is to make disciples.
We have learned that the will of God is to make disciples.
How do we do that?
Learn from other examples.
17 Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. 18 For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, 19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
Follow godly men and women in order to see how they live.
Learn from Jesus Christ.
28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Follow Jesus by studying His life from Scripture.
Do the will of God.
14 But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach. 15 The Jews then were astonished, saying, “How has this man become learned, having never been educated?” 16 So Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. 17 “If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.