You Are A Servant, Like It or Not

You have got to be a servant to somebody or something.

Charles F. Kettering (1876-1958, American engineer, inventor)

Romans 14:16-18 (HCSB)
Therefore, do not let your good be slandered, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever serves the Messiah in this way is acceptable to God and approved by men.

We are not given a choice whether to serve or not, we are chosen servants of our Lord and king. I think that it would help us to overcome some of our most cumbersome pride issues if we would refer to ourselves as servants more often. There is something humbling about the word servant, and we will be His servants, if He is our King.

Paul is speaking of service here and our time in this world is to be marked by our service. Paul says then that “whoever serves,” meaning us, serves the Messiah in this way. This is to say that we, for whom Christ died, owe Him an eternal debt of service. We are His and He is our King, we are to live in a way that is “acceptable” to Him, and not ourselves.

What is acceptable to your King? Well have you asked Him? Have you kneeled before Him this day and asked His blessing on your endeavors? Remember, as we discovered yesterday, peace and joy are a result of righteous living. How can we as servants of “The King” live rightly daily without His Blessing?...God’s Blessings.
Pastor William

Kingdom Living

Him, who incessantly laughs in the street, you may commonly hear grumbling in his closet.

Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741-1801, Swiss theologian, mystic)

Romans 14:16-18 (HCSB)
Therefore, do not let your good be slandered, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever serves the Messiah in this way is acceptable to God and approved by men.

In these verses we find the kingdom of God defined as what it is and what it is not. I find that Paul chose to first define what it wasn’t, and it wasn’t satisfaction of the flesh. He says that those things that make the flesh happy, and eating and drinking certainly make Baptist’s happy, were not the secret for everlasting peace and contentment.

So what does he define as our greatest source of strength, joy and answer to our daily needs? The Holy Spirit of God, and he tells us what things will lead us to contentment in the Holy Spirit. They are these, righteousness, which means letting God’s Word define “Right Living” for you,and I, which will lead to peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Paul doesn’t list “Peace” first, for peace is a product of kingdom living. He doesn’t list “Joy” first for it is also a product of “Walking in God’s Word.” He listed righteousness first because without it neither peace, nor joy can exist. The only lasting peace and joy that will be real joy in the street, and real peace inside your heart, comes only from walking according to God’s Word…God’s Blessings.
Pastor William

Can You See Christ In Me

If we are to live together in peace, we must come to know each other better.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973, American President (36th))

Romans 14:16-18 (HCSB)

Therefore, do not let your good be slandered, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever serves the Messiah in this way is acceptable to God and approved by men.

This is something to consider as Christians as we endeavor to live for Christ and to win souls for the Kingdom of God. Can anything that I do be misunderstood or cast doubt on my life’s testimony for Jesus? Before you can ask this question, it is my belief, and I think Christ’s teaching that I must have a great concern and love for those around me.

When Jesus addressed the crowds, He always left the crowds with a thought of concern or love for each other, and He expressed it in his actions. As I have told you before the life verse that God gave me was Hebrews 13:1, “let love of the Brethren continue.” This isn’t the cheap or temporal love the world expresses, but the eternal love of Christ.

Paul is saying that I should really examine my life for things that do not reflect the Glory of God to others, and rid my life of things that do not honor Him. Acts 20:24 tells us this, “But I count my life of no value to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God’s grace.” Now that says it all…God’s Blessings.
Pastor William

The Value of Others

Ambition breaks the ties of blood, and forgets the obligations of gratitude.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832, British novelist, poet)

Romans 14:13-15
Therefore, let us no longer criticize one another, but instead decide not to put a stumbling block or pitfall in your brother’s way. (I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean.) For if your brother is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. By what you eat, do not destroy that one for whom Christ died. (HCSB)

“I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus.” Now that’s a way to start a sentence isn’t it, and if you will notice Paul ends his thought on this the same way, with Jesus. He emphasizes the value of others by the price that was paid by Christ. He sought them and He bought them with “His” redeeming blood.

If We have nothing invested in each other we will not value each other as much as we should. Christ does and it is His very life giving precious blood. He invested His whole life in His children, which by the way again, “they are His children.” It’s a dangerous thing to mess with someone else’s children, the Father protects his children.

Paul is saying that our view of others should be bent and persuaded by the Love of Christ for His Children, not by our selfish ambition or motives. I have seen selfish ambition destroy families, all for the sake of earthly things. Jesus does not allow that in His kingdom. He taught us from His birth, until His death, “Others first, self last.”…God’s Blessings.
Pastor William

Stumbling Blocks Defined

An obstacle may be either a stepping-stone or a stumbling block.

Author Unknown

Romans 14:13-15
Therefore, let us no longer criticize one another, but instead decide not to put a stumbling block or pitfall in your brother’s way. (I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean.) For if your brother is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. By what you eat, do not destroy that one for whom Christ died. (HCSB)

Before we leave these verses, it would serve us well to define the two words that are the subject of these verses. Those two words are stumbling blocks, and pitfalls. Can you and I define these from within ourselves? Most certainly not, the reason being is that what we may call a pitfall, or cause to stumble, may not be someone else’s cause to stumble.

It could be someone watching a Christian walking into, or talking about an “R” rated movie that they went to see. It may be someone at work that watches us in our daily work life and sees our stumbling, our times that we get angry of frustrated. It could be that person who was hurting, or needed a hand, and we never called, but we talked about God’s love.

So stumbling blocks and pitfalls are not defined by us, but by others. If we are to be effective for Christ in this world, then we must have a real love and concern for others. Not just saying that we love others, but getting out of our little world of selfish desire, and living in someone else’s world. When we go there, we remove the stumbling blocks, and we become stepping stones to Jesus…God’s Blessings.
Pastor William

Outside of Self

Love is what is left in a relationship after all the selfishness is taken out.

Nick Richardson

Romans 14:13-15
Therefore, let us no longer criticize one another, but instead decide not to put a stumbling block or pitfall in your brother’s way. (I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean.) For if your brother is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. By what you eat, do not destroy that one for whom Christ died. (HCSB)

Just forgive me and grant me some room as I prattle on about the impact these verses of scripture should have on us, but what they call on us to do is to live “outside” of self. Sounds simple enough, but we have to admit it is a struggle for us to live in a world that puts our wants and needs behind the needs of others. It is simply not our nature is it?

In Leviticus 19:18, God says we shall love our neighbor as ourselves, then Jesus raises the bar again in Matthew 5:44 when he says even love your enemies and pray for those that hate or persecute you. Isn’t that a bold call to live by faith and not by selfish feeling? You know what I mean when I say feeling right. Emotional faith is the weakest faith of all.

I don’t always feel like loving you, or anyone else, but I don’t have a choice, because I am to submit myself to the Lordship of Jesus, and obey God’s commands. When I submit, then the Holy Spirit of God will give me the strength to love others, not with my weak and temporal emotional love, but with the Eternal Love of Christ, my Savior, and Lord…God’s Blessings.
Pastor William

Confusing Christians

Most of us are umpires at heart; we like to call balls and strikes on somebody else.

Leo Aikman (American Journalist)

Romans 14:13-15
Therefore, let us no longer criticize one another, but instead decide not to put a stumbling block or pitfall in your brother’s way. (I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean.) For if your brother is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. By what you eat, do not destroy that one for whom Christ died. (HCSB)

I know the world is not going to have this kind of concern for one another, but Christ certainly modeled for us the life that He desired for us to lead. He didn’t criticize Zacheus, he went to his home to eat with him, and to restore him. God wishes that all men might be redeemed and restored, yet we too often criticize and do nothing to help them.

Christians have caused many people to be in states of confusion by the lives that they have led in front of them. They take the form of religion, talk religious, claim to be religious but, their lives do not reflect Christ. They live like everyone else in the world, except for a 30 minute service they attend weekly to be able to condemn those that do not.

My thought is that we should be more “kingdom” minded in the way that we live. We should desire that we not do anything that might lead someone away from Christ. The statement that we are the only Jesus that some may ever see, is so true. The way we live reflects on our Savior, and He came to save, and not destroy…God’s Blessings.
Pastor William

Who is King?

We need not fear life, because God is the Ruler of all and we need not fear death, because He shares immortality with us.

Ann Landers (1918-, American advice columnist)

Romans 14:9-12
Christ died and came to life for this: that He might rule over both the dead and the living. But you, why do you criticize your brother? Or you, why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written: As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to Me, and every tongue will give praise to God. So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. (HCSB)

Revelation 1:17-19, tells us this, “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. He laid His right hand on me, and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last, and the Living One. I was dead, but look—I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades. Therefore write what you have seen, what is, and what will take place after this.”

John, recognizing Christ, fell down at His feet acknowledging the Authority of Christ in his life. It would be good for us to do the same thing these days. The first part of verse 9 should sober us, and put us in our place. Why, because even death is ruled over by our Savior, he holds the keys to everything. There is no way around Christ!

He, Jesus, is the center of creation; it exists by Him, through Him, and in Him. Acts 17:25 says, “For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.” If you think that you have “skirted” Him in life, at the moment of your death, you will meet the King of Death, and His name is Jesus, and if you were king over your life, instead of Jesus, you will know who the King was …God’s Blessings.
Pastor William

When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.

Wayne Dyer (1940-, American psychotherapist, author, lecturer)

Romans 14:9-12
Christ died and came to life for this: that He might rule over both the dead and the living. But you, why do you criticize your brother? Or you, why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written: As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to Me, and every tongue will give praise to God. So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. (HCSB)

When I was a little boy one of my favorite games was king of the hill. We would find us an old pile of sawdust and see who could stay on the top the longest while we sized them up and tackled them. We didn’t create that game; it is one that has been played through the ages, some of those battles ended in the loss of life.

We should be careful in this life in our relationships with others, for all those others around us are also children that Jesus died for. When we stand before His throne on judgment day God is not going to ask us one question about their actions. Just one subject will be the topic of that conversation; it will all be about us, “personally.”

Romans 2:15b says this, “Their competing thoughts either accuse or excuse them on the day when God judges what people have kept secret, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus.” What competing thoughts? It is the competing thoughts of Grace, and Law, have we shared the grace that God has given us or have we reserved that for ourselves and judgment for others? God will decide in that day…Grace to you, and God’s Blessings.

Pastor William

To His Advantage

I will place no value on anything I have or may possess except in relation to the kingdom of Christ.

David Livingstone (1813-1873, British missionary, explorer)

Romans 14:7-8 (HCSB)

For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

Another way to express what Paul is saying when he says, “to himself,” or herself as the case may be, is to state it like this. “No one lives to his own advantage, or dies to his own advantage.” Does that make it easier to understand what Paul is saying here? In other words, Paul says life isn’t about you.

Wow! Now that will turn some heads. It isn’t about us, it’s all about Him. Your life is not for your advantage, it is for God’s advantage, and for His Glory. Doesn’t this make 1 Corinthians 6:20, easier to understand; “You are not your own, for you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body.

If we could ever grasp that one point we would be happier and find peace as God’s children, for it would help us to find our purpose every day that we live. In Gal 2:20, Paul tells us this, “and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me,” God’s Blessings.
Pastor William

For Whom Am I Living?

None are so empty as those who are full of themselves.

Benjamin Whichcote (1609-1683, British philosopher, theologian)

Romans 14:7-8

For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. (HCSB)

Self can get pretty big, and the problem with that is that it is so close. it is hard to see around it. It looms large in our lives, and it takes a determined effort to get out of its shadow. Paul tells us this in 2 Corinthians 5 vs 15 “And He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the One who died for them and was raised.

Ok a good question for us all today, is who are you living for right now, this very minute? Be brutally honest. Why do you go to work, is it for you, or for the Lord. Does the Lord’s will and purpose have anything to do with your life’s direction, or is the only see that you think of all the time is what benefits your earthly existence?

One of these days these questions will be much more important for you and I, when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ. We will be judged then not on how much we gained physically here for ourselves, but on what we obtained for Christ, our Lord, and Savior. The Lord tells us in Ezekiel 7: 27, “I will judge them by their own standards. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”…God’s Blessings.
Pastor William

Weighing The Day

He who lives only to benefit himself confers on the world a benefit when he dies.

Tertullian (160-240, Roman Christian author and polemicist)

Romans 14:5-6 (HCSB)

One person considers one day to be above another day. Someone else considers every day to be the same. Each one must be fully convinced in his own mind. Whoever observes the day, observes it to the Lord. Whoever eats, eats to the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; and whoever does not eat, it is to the Lord that he does not eat, yet he thanks God.

A common denominator that we find when we value certain days above others is selfish desire. We value certain days because life is all about us, about what makes us happy and what makes us sad. It is an inward seeking of self-gratification. There is nothing that we cannot enjoy as Christians, as long as we take Christ along with us, and if Christ wouldn’t go there, neither should you and I.

The difference is that I ask myself each day that I live this one question, “whose day is this?” the simple answer is that it is God’s day, and our Father says that we need to be fully convinced of this fact. The reason being is that we can be satisfied with weak and small emotional gratifying experiences and miss the Grandeur of God in our days.

It is getting up every day excited because God is with you, and you recognize that fact, and you give Him the Glory for whatever you have in that day. If you have nothing, you thank Him, if you have plenty, you thank Him. If it’s a special day, you thank Him, and if it’s a Monday morning …you get up and give Him praise for Monday…God’s Blessings.
Pastor William

What Are We Living For

The real difficulty, the difficulty which has baffled the sages of all times, is rather this: how can we make our teaching so potent in the motional life of man, that its influence should withstand the pressure of the elemental psychic forces in the individual?
Albert Einstein (1879-1955, German-born American physicist)

Romans 14:5-6 (HCSB)
One person considers one day to be above another day. Someone else considers every day to be the same. Each one must be fully convinced in his own mind. Whoever observes the day, observes it to the Lord. Whoever eats, eats to the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; and whoever does not eat, it is to the Lord that he does not eat, yet he thanks God.

I can remember as a small child, thinking that Christmas was so far away, for I so loved that time of year. I loved the anticipation and the waiting for all my wishes to come true, overnight, under a green fir tree. Then when I got old enough to know the real Santa Claus, it felt like the time between Christmas seasons had shrunken so much.

We do the same thing today you know? Except when you get older that special day is Friday, so much so that we have designed an acronym for it, “TGIF.” Thank Goodness it’s Friday, but please do not ask me about my Monday. Once again, we celebrate an ending and not of a beginning. Listen to what Paul tells us about these worldly symptoms in Galatians 4:9-11

“But now, since you know God, or rather have become known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and bankrupt elemental forces? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? You observe special days, months, seasons, and years. I am fearful for you, that perhaps my labor for you has been wasted”…We’ll talk more about this tomorrow, God’s Blessings.
Pastor William