Complete in Thee: Choose You This Day Whom Will Be Your Master...

Monday, June 8, 2009

Choose You This Day Whom Will Be Your Master...

"No man can be owned by two masters:

for either he will hate the one, and love the other;

or he will hold to the one, and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and material possessions."

(Matt. 6:24, MLT (Melanie's Literal Translation :-P )

Just one verse... and yet so much meaning packed into it. In fact, this verse, in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, is really the verse that determines whether we will obey all that is spoken in the verses surrounding it. This verse speaks of a CRISIS choice... our turning point comes when we make the decision (which is inevitable) to be mastered by God or by earthly things. It is a CONSCIOUS choice, not theoretical but practical. It is also a CONTINUAL choice, not once-for-all, but day-by-day and moment-by-moment.

The word "serve" in the King James translation literally means "slave for". A slave is someone who is owned by someone else; therefore, it could also be worded "belong to" or "be mastered by". "Master" speaks of someone or something having total possession of a person. Jesus challenges us to consider, who am I mastered by? God or material things? What drives what I do? What do I hope in? Where do I look to for satisfaction? Where does my mind go when I am lying in bed at night? What sets the agenda for my life?

Mammon (a Semetic word for money or possessions, according to the footnote in my Bible) can very easily become an idol to us. And mammon can be anything... for some it might be something as "innocent" as a cell phone, a blackberry, or a laptop. For some it may be work, music, or hobbies. For me it could easily be sewing, costume dramas, and classic literature. All sorts of things can come to master us, instead of us mastering it.

But God calls us to come unto Him; He calls us to belong to Him. He wants to be our Lord and our Master. As people made in His image, and children born into His kingdom, our hearts should be set in such a way that God our Saviour directs and controls all the we do. He should drive all that we do. He is the One we should hope in. He should be the One who brings us satisfaction. It is to Him that our hearts and minds should continually turn. He should set the agenda for our lives.

These thoughts, presented by my pastor in yesterday morning's message, really spoke to my heart and convicted me. They came very timely, also, as a dear friend of mine had encouraged me this last week to pray for the youth of our church to set their hearts on God, and have decided to start praying together on Sundays for that purpose. It was exciting that God should have prompted Pastor to preach this sermon just as we were seeing the need to pray for that very thing in our own lives and those of our friends. God's timing is perfect.

Below is the outline from Pastor's sermon. I should also add that most of the above lesson is drawn directly from notes that I took from his message; they are not original from me.

"A Call to Exclusive Devotion"

Matthew 6:24

I. Who is my Master?

A. The one I love

B. The one I long for

C. The one I lean on

II. What is "mammon"?

A. Material possessions

B. Tangible pursuits

III. What is God's mandate?

A. Full devotion to Him

B. Full determination for Him

C. Full direction from Him

5 comments:

Anonymous said...: This is a good post, Melanie! It's convicting to realize that Jesus wasn't just speaking of riches ( it's so easy to say, "well, I don't pursue riches, so it's not that convicting), but of any pursuit or thing that can control us.; June 8, 2009 at 3:15 PM
Margaret Dashwood said...: Wow, good post...; June 9, 2009 at 10:18 AM
juli said...: I was like, whoa! What sort of translation is Melanie using now??

That was an excellent message Sunday! Makes me realize there is NO middle ground! It's either God or the devil we're serving!; June 9, 2009 at 3:15 PM
Melanie said...: LOL, Juli, your comment made me giggle. Don't worry, I'm not going off the deep-end. :-)

Alaina, I think I used to think of mammon as only riches/money too. Pastor's message helped me to understand better that it is so much more than just that.; June 9, 2009 at 3:58 PM
Teddy said...: Great post Mells!(lo! I've come up with another one! Methinks that I'm paying you back for all the names you've made up for your sisters! :))Pastor's messege was soooooo good and we all needed to hear it. Let's slave for the Lord guys!; June 10, 2009 at 5:03 PM

PRAYER REQUESTS

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints" (Ephesians 6:18)

PLEASE PRAY...

* That I would draw nearer to God every day and never allow my relationship to become stagnant ritual; particularly that I would grow in the area of submission, patience, 1 Corinthians 13 love, and wholehearted devotion

* That I might have wisdom as I edit "The Marquis' Daughter"; that the Lord would bless and work through it; and that I might find just the right publisher for it.

* That I would submit to the Lord's work in my life, whatever it may be; that I would take each opportunity He brings me (even the seemingly hard ones) to draw closer to Him and point others to Him

*That our Etsy shop might be successful and that it would be a means by which we can glorify God and share the Gospel

Ephesians 2:1-10

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

"The heart set to do the Father's will need never fear defeat. His promises of guidance may be fully counted upon. Does it make sense to believe that the Shepherd would care less about getting His sheep where He wants them to go than they care about getting there?"

"God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will, a will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to."

"If God, like a father, denies us what we want now it is in order to give us some far better thing later on. The will of God, we can rest assured, is invariably a better thing."

"Obedience to God's will is the secret of spiritual knowledge and insight. It is not willingness to know, but willingness to DO (obey) God's will that brings certainty."

"Victory over all the circumstances of life comes not by might, nor by power, but by a practical confidence in God and by allowing His Spirit to dwell in our hearts and control our actions and emotions. Learn in the days of ease and comfort, to think in terms of the prayer that follows, so that when the days of hardship come you will be fully prepared and equipped to meet them."

"And shall I pray, Oh, change Thy will, my Father,
Until it be according unto mine?
Ah no, Lord, no, that never could be, rather
I pray Thee, Blend my human will with Thine."

"A crucified life cannot be self-assertive. It cannot protect itself. It cannot be startled into resentful words. The cup that is full of sweet water cannot spill bitter-tasting drops, however sharply it is knocked."

"And as we rest our hearts upon what we know (the certainty of the ultimate triumph of good), leaving what we do not know to the Love that has led us all our life long, the peace of God enters into us and abides. And then we see our light."

[A Practicing Christian]...it means that every single act and feeling, every experience, whether pleasant or unpleasant, must be referred to God. It means looking at everything as something that comes from Him, and always looking to Him and asking His will first, and saying, "How would he wish me to deal with this?"

Christ says: "Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you."

"I was not born to be free. I was born to adore and to obey."

"What is saving but taking us out of the dark into the light? There is no salvation but to know God and grow like Him."

"I will not try to convince you of anything about God. I cannot. You must know Him. I only tell you I believe in Him with all my heart. You must ask Him to explain Himself to you, and not take it for granted that He has done you a wrong because He has done what you do not like. Whether you seek Him or not, He will do you justice. But He cannot explain Himself unless you seek Him."

"Sometimes a thunderbolt will shoot from a clear sky; and sometimes into the life of a peaceful individual, without warning of gathered storm, something terrible will fall. And from that moment everything is changed. That life is no more what it was. Better it ought to be, worse it may be. The result depends on the life itself and it's response to the invading storm of trouble. Forever after, it's spiritual weather is altered. But for the one who believes in God, such rending and frightful catastrophies never come but where they are turned around for good in his own life and in other lives he touches."