Today we are going to learn something I feel is very important. We will learn how to become a bond servant to the Lord - a person that is totally committed to the Lord. And is willing to follow the Lord all the days of their lives.
So before we start, I want us to read some scriptures, that will give us a background then, I'll explain some important points.
The first scripture I
want us to look at is from Deuteronomy 15: 12-17,
it says,
“If a fellow- Hebrew a man or a woman sells himself to you
and serves
you six years, in the seventh year, you must let him go free.
And when you release him, do not send him away empty- handed.
Supply him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress.
Give to him as the Lord your God has blessed you. Remember that you were slaves
in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you.
That is why I give you this command today.
But if your servant says to you, "I do not want to leave you,
because I love you and your family and I am well off with you”, then take on awl and push it
through his earlobe into the door, and he will become your servant for life.
Do the same for your maid servant”.
Now in the Bible,
there were different kinds of servants.
I just want to explain two kinds of servants, when you read the Bible.
The first kind of a
servant was a hireling.
John 10:12 -13 talks about
the difference between a shepherd
and a hireling.
A hireling was someone
who was hired and was paid a wage.
And once he got his
wage, he was free to do whatever he wanted.
There are several characteristics that a hireling
had.
Another one
was that beside getting a wage, he could spend his money the way he wanted.
Another one is, he
had days off and could do as he liked.
He could marry whom he wished.
He could quit the work any time he wanted. And he could be fired if things got bad.
But there was a difference with a bond servant.
A bond servant slave that had been bought.
It could be a man or a woman.
And once they were
bought if it was a Hebrew slave, after seven years, they were supposed to be released,
so that they continue with their lives.
But the Bible says that
in case that they did not want to be released,
They would go to the master and say,
"I love you and your family, and my welfare is better with you,
so, I want to stay with you the rest of my life."
The master will take the slave, take him to a
door and pierce through his right ear,
to the door in the presence of other
people. If you read the Book of Exodus 21:1-6,
they were witnesses
that he is making a commitment to become a slave for life. And this kind of a slave - a bond servant:
He was not paid.
He could not own anything because the master owned him.
·
He only had what the master gave him.
·
He had no rights.
·
He could only marry the person the master chose for
him,
· and he would have to obey at all times, without question.
He He had no money of his own.
· Had no days off;
But there were benefits that came with it, which I just want to explain before we go on:
·
His master pledged to protect him,
all the days of his life.
·
The master was supposed to provide for his
·
needs.
·
And the master
was supposed to take care of him as
· He took care of himself. That means, he became like part of his life.
So
when the Bible says that,
God has called us to be a bond servant.
The Lord is not talking about becoming a hireling.
The Lord is talking about becoming someone
we are committed to him permanently.
And many believers struggle with
this concept. But
if you read the New Testament, you' ll find that something that is very
interesting. It talks about what Jesus has done for us.
The Bible says the Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed us.
The word for redemption is a word that is taken from the marketplace.
A master will go to a
marketplace,
look at a slave he liked
and negotiate the price and buy them.
For the Hebrew people it
was for seven years, if they are
not Hebrew people, it was for life.
So the Bible says clearly that God,
the Father has redeemed us through the blood of Jesus Christ.
Bible says Jesus has bought us
with his
own life, with His own blood.
And they
are conditions that God has established,
once he bought us, we
permanently belong to him.
We are not hirelings in his kingdom
unless we choose to
When we came to his kingdom and
bought us with the price of the Blood of His Son price, we have become permanent
slaves of the Lord.
I want us to read several Scriptures that explain this.
The first one says
in 1Corinthians 6: 19- 20.
Do you not know that your body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit?
Who is in you, who we have received from God?
You are not your own.
You are bought at a price.
Therefore, honor God with your body.
So Paul says clearly,
God has called us to be the temple of the Holy Spirit.
God no longer dwells
in buildings. God dwells in people.
For us to become His temple He bought us.
He paid the price with his own life
– the Blood of His Son
We are no longer our own.
The Lord is saying clearly when we receive
the Holy Spirit - coming and dwelling in us, it is because he has already bought us.
The Lord does not want
to have a temporary residence in a human being. Once
you get born again the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us.
At that moment,
you are no longer free. I always tell people
when you come to Christ as a disciple, and
as a servant of God, you do not have rights.
You only
have responsibilities.
And because you have
been bought, the Lord can
Command you to do anything for His glory, but he wants us to cooperate.
He does not want us
to be robots that follow
Him wherever he goes, but He want us to be willing servants.
He wants our will to be involved.
He bought us, the potential is there,
but we have to be willing - to submit to him as a master.
Another scripture says in 1Corinthians 7:23
God has bought you with a price, the blood of Jesus Christ, and you are no longer slaves to men.
So we have two things that the Bible is
showing us that makes us slaves. The first one is we can become slaves
to sin, the second
we can become slaves to men. That means we are at
the mercies of people.
And in that context
of 1 Corinthians 7:23, Paul is saying that although you can be a
physical slave, once you come to Christ you are
free.
You become a slave to Christ, and you should live like a free person
always.
Now the equivalent in our time is, has to do with
our workplace.
Just because you are working in a place, it doesn't mean you are not free.
You're working in
a place, but as human beings, you have freedom.
That means you can choose what you want.
But the Lord says once he buys you, you and everything belong to him.
It's very interesting
in these scriptures, the Lord is very particular.
What does He say?
He has bought our bodies. Redemption is not just for our spirits
and our souls, but our bodies.
It's our body that makes us to be temples of the Holy Spirit.
The Lord wants to dwell in us, and
He has bought us with a price.
From the context of the
Old Testament, we have seen what it means to submit to the Lord as a bondservant.
What happens when you become a bondservant of the Lord?
He will take care of you.
·
He'll provide for you.
· He'll protect you.
Your only thing that you need to do is,
you must remember you have no rights with the Lord.
You must allow the Lord to be involved
in all the choices of your life.
Whether it's your resources,
whether it's your relationships, whether the plans you make.
You must involve the Lord because you do not belong to yourself.
Once you do like that, you become a
person that God can work with
, so that He can use you to touch many people's lives.
Now, if you read Revelation 7:1-4
there's a scripture that says,
Before the judgment starts, the Lord tells His
angels to wait till His bondservants are marked
People who are marked by the Lord,
will be protected by the Lord.
Even if it means dying for Christ, they will die in Him.
But if they are not called to die for Christ, the Lord will protect them,
even in this end times. The key part is we must stop being leisurely Christians and commit ourselves to become servants of the Lord -totally committed, knowing that the Lord has brought us:
We have no freedom except His freedom.
·
We have no choices except His choices.
·
We have no will of our own except His own will.
·
We have no other heart except the heart of the Lord.
· We have no other mind except the mind of Christ.
At that point the Lord commits himself to take care of your life.
There are two ways you can respond
to this message today.
How do you respond to become a bond
servant to the Lord?
I want
to read two scriptures.
The first one
is from Romans 12:1
The Bible says, Paul says
“Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.
holy and pleasing to God.
This is your spiritual act of worship”.
The highest worship we can give God is to offer
our bodies as a living sacrifice. Paul
says in view of God's mercy.
If you read the whole of the Book
of Romans from
chapter 1 to the end, they are two things,
that Paul repeats righteousness and God's mercy.
We become righteous because God has been merciful
to us. Because God has shown us mercy and given
us righteousness by faith.
Paul says the only way we can respond as an act
of worship is to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice.
You have to willingly do it.
The phrase a “living sacrifice”,
it's taken from one
the five offerings in the Bible.
One of them was a
burnt offering.
The only thing that was kept from a
burnt offering was what? The skin.
Everything else was
burnt. it was totally given to the Lord.
God wants you to be totally dedicated to Him.
Your life must be a living sacrifice,
that the Lord can touch by his presence. 24 hours per day, not some days,
not when we feel like. And the Lord is
not just talking about our lives, but our body.
Because when you give your body, you have given everything.
The only valuable thing we have in this life, that we can give to God is our lives.
Not even
the things around us, not even the relationships we have.
It's our own lives.
If we give our bodies, it becomes easy to give everything else.
Another way, He says
we should respond, is from Romans 6:15-19
where Paul says, we need to learn to offer the parts of our body individually.
He says,
” What then, are we to sin
because we are
under law, but under grace?
By no means? Do you not know if you present yourself to anyone as obedient slaves?
you are slaves of the one whom you
obey.
Either of sin
which leads to death or obedience, which leads to righteousness.
but thanks be to God,
that you who were once slaves of sin have
become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching
to
which you are committed. And having been
set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
I was speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations,
for just as you once presented,
your members as slaves to impurity to lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness.
So now present your members as slaves
to righteousness, leading to sanctification or holiness”.
Paul
says if you have given your body to the Lord, go a step further.
The members that you dedicated to a unrighteousness, impurity and disobedience,
one by one offer them to the Lord.
The
practical application is this.
It is good to dedicate every part of your body to the Lord.
Dedicate your mind, dedicate your hands, dedicate your feet.
Every part of your being. So that the Lord can use it to serve righteousness.
Now
this becomes very important, when you
start learning how to become a friend of God. Because the Lord will be able to communicates
either through your spirit, through your soul, or through your body. When
everything is dedicated to the Lord, He can use it.
So beyond just offering your body as a living sacrifice, you need to offer
every part of your being - one by one to
the Lord.
Are
there parts of your body that you're struggling?
Do you struggle with your hands?
Do you struggle with your ears? Do you struggle with the eyes? The things you
look at, the things you hear,
Do you struggle with your tongue? Every part of it, one by one give it back to the Lord so that it can
serve righteousness.
Those
are two ways we see from this message how we can become bond servants.
First, you give your body to the Lord. Go
kneel down tell the Lord, I'm offering my body as a living sacrifice.
Go a step further offer every part of your body individually to the Lord. So
that they can become instruments of righteousness.
Why
is the Bible saying, he says the instrument of righteousness?
because it is righteousness that leads to holiness.
Holiness is not something we keep on telling ourselves, don't do this or don't
do that.
Holiness,
when we commit ourselves to the Lord, Lord is able to live through us. The Lord
is able to use our ears, to hear, our tongue to speak and encourage people. Our
eyes to see what He wants to see in people.
We become an extension of his body.
When
we offer ourselves to the Lord.
So
as we finish today, I want to encourage you
as a response to this message, offer your body as a living sacrifice. Offer
every part of your body to the Lord. One by one.
This is how you can pray about it.
You kneel and tell the Lord,
“Today
because you've been merciful to me.
Through Jesus Christ,
you have redeemed me, today I offer my body to you.
Lord, I offer my hands, I offer my feet, I offer my ears.
I offer my eyes so that they'll become
instruments of righteousness for now and eternity.
At
that point from the Bible, we know whenever a burnt offering would be given to
the Lord. The Bible says it became, as sweet smelling
savor to him. Your life will become something that God
can enjoy. Because you have totally given yourself to him,
for now, and eternity. As we finish
I just want us to take time to pray about it. And
if you want to take this time to dedicate yourself, take this opportunity let
the Holy Spirit, just be able to help you.
So,
let's pray together.
“Father,
we just want to thank you. That you have called us to be bond servants. You
have paid the price for our redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ. You
have bought us with a price. We pray that, Father, you will help us to respond
to you. For the mercies you have shown us through Jesus Christ, we offer our bodies
as a living sacrifice. We offer every part of our body, as instruments of righteousness that
leads to holiness. Lord, we give
ourselves to you Lord. May our lives, become a sweet-smelling savor to you, all
the days of our lives. And may our lives become holy temples, of the Holy
Spirit. We want to thank you, Lord. 1
We want to praise you. In Jesus name our Lord Savior we have prayed. Amen. So,
thank you.
God bless you. See you next time.
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