4. Who Will You Serve?

Welcome to part four of our series, Long Obedience in the Same Direction. So what is the ultimate goal of being a Christian? Good question right? Your first thought is probably this: “Go to Heaven when I die.”

What if I told you that’s not the goal of being a Christian? The goal of a Christian is to become like Jesus and to join him in his mission. The term we use for this journey discipleship. It simply means, following Jesus, being transformed by Jesus and living on mission with Jesus.

Here’s the truth: If you commit your life to becoming like Jesus everything else, including your eternal destination all falls into place.

So this journey of discipleship can be compared to a lot of things. Last week I described it like hiking up a mountain. Today I want to compare it to running a marathon. Anyone here this morning every run a marathon? I know some of you have. Okay, the next question is: Why? You really have to have a good reason to run 26.4 miles. The same could be said for being a Christian. Why would someone want to follow Jesus?

So after you have your answer to the “why?” You have to figure out a plan or program to run and finish a marathon. There is no way you can go from a couch potato to a marathon finisher over night. If you check on your phone, there are a wide variety of apps that help you train and prepare for running a marathon. They lay out your training schedule, your calorie intake, water consumption and rest. Most of these programs are built out over three to six months. So not only is there training in running the marathon, but then there is the day of running the actual marathon.

It’s one thing to have a goal and a plan, and it’s a whole other journey when it comes to executing the plan. There are days when you crush your goals. There are other days when you fail or it’s too hard or you just plain fail and you want to give up. You have to pick yourself up, and keep taking steps in the right direction, trusting the process and the resources you’ve been given.

To help us on this journey of discipleship we are using our own plan to guide us on our journey of long obedience in the same direction. Our plan are these 15 Psalms call, The Psalms of Ascent. If you have a Bible or device, go to Psalm 120, the first of these Psalms and let’s do a quick review. If you are using the YouVersion Bible app, go to Events, then look for Iowa City Church. All the sermon notes and Scriptures will be there.

In Jesus’ day, the Jewish people would do their very best to travel to Jerusalem for one of the three big feasts; Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. When they would travel there, usually in big groups, to get to Jerusalem, they would need to travel up a fairly steep incline. Jerusalem was the highest elevated city in all of Israel. While these crowds of pilgrims walked to Jerusalem they would sing these Psalms of ascent. It was a mental exercise in reminding them of their literal and spiritual journey of pursuing and worshipping God. Think of it as their playlist as they were training for a marathon…it inspired and encouraged them.

So far on their journey they would have sung Psalm 120, a reminder of repenting and leaving behind lies and deceit to pursue God. Psalm 121, where they would look to the provision God provides, “I look to the mountains, where does my help come from?” Last Sunday we looked at Psalm 122, the importance of community worship and how it helps keep our focus clear and our faith sharp.

This brings us to Psalm 123. Please stand with me as I read it.

Psalm 123:1–4 NIV

1 I lift up my eyes to you, to you who sit enthroned in heaven. 2 As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a female slave look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he shows us his mercy. 3 Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us, for we have endured no end of contempt. 4 We have endured no end of ridicule from the arrogant, of contempt from the proud.

Pray

What is the problem being presented in this Psalm? Look at verse 3 and 4 again.

Psalm 123:3-4

Psalm 123:3–4 (NIV)

3 Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us, for we have endured no end of contempt. 4 We have endured no end of ridicule from the arrogant, of contempt from the proud.

God’s people are tired of their oppressors, the masters over them who are contemptuous, arrogant and proud. They are tired of the ridicule, so they turn their eyes to God looking for his mercy.

Keep in mind, God’s people Israel faced all kinds of arrogant and proud masters…Pharoah in Egypt, Assyrians, Babylonians or the Romans in Jesus’ day. These people understood ridicule from these masters, and it made life hard.

Have you experienced contempt, ridicule and arrogance from a master or someone above you? Sometimes there are people above us, be it a family member, a boss or just someone difficult at work. In their arrogance they make life difficult for you at work or at home. It’s difficult to put up with.

There are also masters we choose on our own. Maybe it’s a food we love…a bit too much but we just can’t say, “no”. Is it that caffeine addiction? Could it be that show you have to watch all the time and you never miss it. Maybe your master is work, career or making more money.

Maybe your master is stuff, and you will do whatever it takes to get it, even if it means going into debt to get it or have it. All of a sudden you are a slave to the lender or a servant to your possessions.

This week I was able to sit down and talk with a recovering addict. He helps lead the Narcotics Anonymous group that meets here at our church building. I always gain so much insight into life when I talk with a recovering addict. I appreciate their brutal honesty. One of the things he said was that whatever your addicted to alcohol, drugs, porn…it’s your master, and it wants to destroy you. He said that every morning when he wakes up he has to make a cognitive decision not to be an addict that day. He has to tell himself that he is choosing not to let drugs be his master that day.

He told me this interesting illustration he tells people when they come into an NA meeting. He tells them that they left their addiction in the parking lot, and it’s right now doing push ups, getting stronger, ready to jump on their shoulders and control their lives when they walk out the building.

Think about that for a moment. Right here, right now, this is kind of like an AA meeting. “Hi, I’m Tom and I’m a sinner.” This is supposed to be our safe place, to be honest and vulnerable. We leave our masters out in the parking, lot…but right now they are doing push ups, ready to jump back on our shoulders once we leave. Our addictions, habits are masters that ridicule us, shows us contempt, and are arrogant…literally wanting to destroy us.

For many people, maybe even you, what’s holding you back on your journey of discipleship is that you have masters that are pulling you in all kinds of directions. Jesus talked about this tension in The Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 6:24 NIV

24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

There can be only one master who we will trust and give our service to. Here’s the point: We all have masters. We need to choose our masters well.

For Isreal, they had seasons in their history where they were opposed by arrogant masters and wanted freedom. For you and me, we have seasons of life where we find our lives under the contentious oppression of an arrogant master and we too want freedom. How do we choose our master well? Where do we find our freedom?

Psalm 123:1 “1 I lift up my eyes to you, to you who sit enthroned in heaven.”

To find our freedom, we lift our eyes to the one who sits in a position of power in heaven. The lifting up of the eyes is an action of prayer. Seek, God for our freedom from oppression. Seek God. One of the reasons this is included as a Psalm of Ascent is because the posture of the singer as they are walking up to Jerusalem, up to the Temple where they would connect with God. In our time of feeling the weight and oppression of a master, we turn our eyes to God. Here some ways that we can turn our eyes to God:

1. Pray.

2. Worship.

3. Serving Him.

Look at the next verse.

Psalm 123:2 “2 As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a female slave look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he shows us his mercy.”

This might be a difficult verse for us to connect with because we as Americans rarely see ourselves with a master or in the position of a slave or servant. But as I’ve already pointed out, we all have masters, whether we realize it or not.

The picture that is painted here is that of a good master or mistress. Where the slave or servant willing serves the wishes of the master…knowing that they will receive mercy.

It should be the desire of God’s people to serve him not matter what…because he is a good master…he is full of mercy.

However, there can still be hesitancy to embrace this. I get it. How do I know? This is one of the reasons why God came to earth in the form of Jesus. To not only engage us at a very personable level, but to also demonstrate what serving God looks like. Jesus as he is sharing the Passover meal with his disciples demonstrates what this kind of service looks like. He gets up from the meal, picks up a basin of water and a towel and begins to wash his disciples feet. Then John writes these words:

John 13:12–17 NIV

12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Our master, models for us what it looks like to serve him. To serve others. To humble ourselves and put others needs ahead of our needs. To cooks meals, shovel snow, clean up messes, and lend a hand when someone needs help. Here’s the result of serving: Jesus says, “you will be blessed if you do them.”

To make a decision to serve Jesus by serving others, brings blessings on our lives…what an amazing gift of mercy.

Choosing to serve Jesus by helping others helps us experience God’s mercy.

Question: What are some ways that you can serve the Lord this week, by serving others?

Here’s the struggle we all face every day: Who am I going to serve? What master am I going to pursue?

There’s actually a parable that Jesus’ tells about making a choice about which master we are going to serve. In the gospel of Luke, chapter 15 Jesus tells about this son who wants to step out on his own. He asks his father for his inheritance, which was a slap in the face since his father was still alive, and he essentially disowns his father and goes to a foreign country to live how he wants to.

Eventually, everything falls apart as the country comes under a famine, and the young man is left feeding scraps to pigs to survive under his new master. Listen to his moment of awakening.

Luke 15:17–20 NIV

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

This young man realizes he has chosen poorly as to who his master will be. He leaves to go serve his father as a slave. However, his father shows him mercy. What a beautiful picture. But it’s also a reminder:

Every day we must choose who our master will be. I invite you to choose our Heavenly Father, who is rich in mercy.