Being Servants of Christ | Lon Solomon

[Music] hello hello hello everybody i just wanted to catch you before we got into the word today to tell you some really exciting news hear ye hear ye hear ye israel is opening for tourists on september 19 no quarantines no nothing uh when we get there and so our october 4 holy land trip is on it's a go as scheduled praise the lord hey we still have a little bit of room if you would like to join us call right away don't wait because we don't have a lot of room call me right away uh 703-280-1114 [Music] 703-280-11 and uh the information for the tour is all on our website call me call me call me love for you to go with us okay now live with lon well hello everybody and welcome to live with lon uh we are so glad that you've joined us today for another study in the word of god remember what we teach here live with lon say it with me the bible come on now the whole bible nothing but the bible and then we apply it uh to our lives and that's what we're going to do today and we have a very interesting passage of scripture uh but before we dig in let's pray dear heavenly father i want to thank you for the privilege of studying your beautiful and eternal and holy word today father use your word in each one of our lives speak to us deeply and if necessary lord change our attitude and change our behavior to be in conformity with the word of god father we also want to take a moment to pray for uh 9 11 uh um the events and we pray for people who lost loved ones that you would continue to comfort them lord we pray for people who survived that you would continue to help them deal with the trauma and lord we pray for our many service men and women who went into action overseas to prevent something like 9 11 from happening again for those uh people who lost loved ones who were service men and women god comfort them uh i pray in their loss and for those who served lord remind them that we love them and we esteem them and we give them thanks as a grateful nation for all they've done now lord use the word of god as i prayed in our life and i asked this in jesus name and everybody said continue to protect america i pray a men and a men okay uh and as i said in my prayer uh we uh want to conform our lives our attitudes our behavior to the word of god uh we don't want to try to change the word of god to conform to our already established habits attitudes and behavior this is why we study the word to learn what god wants from us and then with the help of the holy spirit's power to seek to conform our lives to the word of god whether it be in forgiveness whether it be in sharing the gospel whether it be in watching what comes out of our mouth whether it be our judgmental attitudes whatever it is doesn't matter we conform to the word of god we do not try to conform it to us which is where so many teachers of the word have gone no no the word of god is the authority we conform to it by the help of the holy spirit so today we have a wonderful passage we're in matthew chapter 20 jesus is still on his way to jerusalem for his last week of his earthly life and he's near jericho and uh this is what happens all right let's look matthew chapter 20 verse 20 king james new king james bible here we go then the mother of zebedee's sons this is james and john zebedee was their father came to him with her sons kneeling down and asking something from him and he said to her what do you wish and she said to him grant that these two sons of mine may sit one on your right hand and the other on your left in your kingdom i'm laughing because i had a jewish mother and this is a jewish mother and i'm not saying every jewish mother is like this but at least i'll tell you mine was and a whole lot of the other ones i observed in my youth were uh unbelievable chutzpah unbelievable moxie unbelievable a nerve to come to the living lord jesus the second person of the godhead and say hey uh uh i want this son one of them on your left and one of them on your right the two most exalted places in heaven for a human being uh in your kingdom only i don't know uh would my mother have done that absolutely uh this is this is unbelievable nerve uh to come and ask for this now what did jesus say well jesus answered and said verse 22 you do not know what you ask then he turned to the boys and he said are you able to drink the cup that i'm about to drink and be baptized with the baptism that i am baptized with what's he talking about well he's talking about the passion the beating uh the abuse uh uh before the cross and then being being put on the cross and being killed uh to die for our sins and the suffering that he went through you saw the movie the passion of the christ you understand the suffering he went through eventually dying uh and they say look what they say verse 22 they say it said to him we are able they had no idea what they were talking about folks no idea and he said to them you shall indeed drink my cup and be baptized with the baptism that i am baptized with but to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give but it is for those for whom it is prepared by my father now uh folks uh james of course was uh um martyred early uh in in the history of the church uh by herod uh john lived a long long time but he was persecuted he was exiled to the island of patmos by um the roman emperor domitian when he was an old man and he suffered greatly there so yes they did experience the cup and the baptism the lord jesus spoke about but he said look it's not mine to decide who gets to sit on my right or my left that's my father's now here of course he's speaking not as the second person in the godhead but as as the incarnate christ and uh so who has been chosen to sit on his left and his right i have no idea um certainly not me i don't know was it james and john i don't know but anyway this is what he tells them now watch verse 24 and when the other ten disciples heard it they were moved with indignation against the two brothers now i heard a preacher one time say the move reason they were moved with indignation against the james and john is only because they didn't think of this first ahead of james and john and go to jesus maybe verse 25 but jesus called them all of the disciples to him and said you know that the rulers of the gentiles lorded over them and those who are great among the gentiles exercise authority over them yet it shall not be so among you but whoever desires to become great among you let him be your servant and whoever desires to be first among you let him be your slave just as the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many you know many people have asked me about how i feel about spending the last 29 years of my life almost 30 serving and caring for my daughter jill who has severe disabilities and i have told them that at first in the beginning i think i resented a little bit god putting me in that place but for the vast majority of years i have considered it a privilege to serve my daughter to take care of her needs to make sure she has an optimal living situation in life uh to fight for her life at times uh and to defend her life uh and to the degree i could to beseech god every day uh for the details of her life and for mercy for her yeah and you know why well first of all i love her i like more than i love myself and but second of all the bible doesn't say that serving other people leads to greatness the bible says serving other people is greatness in the eyes of the lord jesus christ and so i'm happy to serve her because i believe it pleases the lord i'm happy to serve her because i believe in the lord's sight uh that it it makes me a greater follower of his in his estimation uh uh because of the way i i seek to serve her uh with all of my heart and all of my soul and all of my energy and may i just say i'm not serving unto jill i'm serving unto the lord i'm serving jill but as unto the lord if god asks you to serve him in some way um folks that doesn't lead to greatness in the eyes of the lord that is greatness that is greatness and jesus said uh philippians chapter two he emptied himself kanao and came to earth and took on the form of a servant of the human race and he came and offered his life as a ransom to many the ultimate act of service now that's the end of our passage but we want to ask our most important question now and you know what that is so are you ready come on now here we go come on one two three so what yeah and what did jackie say how sweet it is yes ma'am yes sir all right now uh i want to talk to you about this passage because uh this i believe this idea of servanthood in my opinion has been more misused more misinterpreted more misapplied a more twisted and distorted uh than almost any teaching in the bible when it comes to the christian life uh and i want to try to straighten some of that out today listen i totally believe every word jesus says including this i totally believe that jesus wants us to be servants above but um i want to show you from the bible that's that that this is not this does not mean what some people take it to me you say what are you talking about i've heard preachers who have preached it as though whatever anybody wants from you you just give to them you are their servant no i don't believe this means that uh whatever people uh uh ask and desire from you you do it for them uh and no matter how it compromises your own life in your own family because you're a servant no i don't believe it means that uh you if you're a pastor you work 80 90 hours a week and if there's more to do you do it you never say no uh to people and their needs because you're you're to be their servant uh if your husband or your wife uh uh wants you to do something even though you don't agree with it and don't think it's right you do it anyway because you're their servant uh your children you're their servants uh this is what the bible says we came to serve others we serve our children uh no and no i don't believe any of this is right i was taught this when i was a young pastor and how about killed myself trying uh to be this kind of definition of a servant uh to the people uh at my first riverdale baptist church and then uh when i came to mclean bible church for 38 years no no uh i almost had a nervous breakdown trying to do all all that people asked me to do friends people don't understand that you have a real life if you're a pastor and they don't understand you've already had 30 people ask you to do something and expect you to do it that same day if you're a pastor and they don't understand uh that if you did everything everybody in the church asked you to do and expected you to do that you would never be available to your wife you would never be available to your own children people don't understand that and so they don't mean any harm in most cases in asking you to do this and that and the other thing but if you adopt the definition that a servant just does whatever and never ever puts limits and boundaries uh around what it means to be a servant you won't last in the ministry and friend you will burn yourself out and ruin your family that's i do not believe that this is what the scripture is talking about and i do not believe that that's the model of the scripture uh okay so what do i believe after 40 years of being a pastor tell you what i believe i believe that we are servants of christ first and foremost we are servants of christ first and foremost yeah let's just take a little stroll through the scripture uh here we go we'll put the verses up on the screen acts chapter 4 verse 29 this the the early church is praying and now lord look on their threats and grant to look your servants that with all boldness they may speak the word how about acts chapter 16 verse 17 paul and silas and tim and timothy and luke in philippi and this demon-possessed girl verse 17 she followed paul and us and cried out saying these men are servants of look who the most high god who proclaim to us the way of salvation how about first corinthians chapter 4 verse 1 paul says let a man so consider us as servants of christ and stewards keepers of the mysteries of god how about titus chapter 1 verse 1 paul says titus 1 1 paul a servant of god and an apostle of jesus christ james chapter 1 verse 1 james a servant of christ paul says it in many of his letters the book of romans paul a bond servant of jesus christ second timothy 2 24. look what paul says he says a servant of the lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all and et cetera et cetera et cetera he's talking to timothy and he says you're a servant of the lord uh now i could give you more uh you can google or go on bible gateway but first and foremost when jesus said that we're to be servants first and foremost we are to be servants of god first and foremost and uh this means that as as servants of god we don't as the gentile rulers do lord our authority uh the apostles or the preacher or whatever over people and we don't use our position as servants of the lord to in some way use people to our advantage no but we are servants of the lord now you say uh uh what does that mean well it means that we have a responsibility to jesus christ first and foremost as his servants to live uh as a servant as supposed to and and when i look at the bible when i look at people like the apostle paul and his life uh he was not a doormat he was not a uh a milk toast he was not uh someone who just said sure whatever you want i'm your servant step on me use me uh take advantage of me uh uh what a no this was not paul paul rebuked the people who were in sin paul gave strict orders to timothy and titus to do the same paul knew what his boundaries were and he respected those boundaries for himself and paul went everywhere and did what he did not as unto men not as to obeying what men thought he ought to do but what he thought god thought he ought to do you remember in acts chapter 21 he was going back to jerusalem and everywhere he went people in the churches begged him not to go and he said i must obey god not you and i mean you you they could have said to him paul you're supposed to be our servant and as our servant we want you to stay right here even if they just said that paul said i'm sorry you don't understand i'm not your servant i'm the servant of jesus christ first and foremost and i do what he tells me to do not what you tell me to do now you say well what about those passages where paul refers to himself as a servant uh to the people well there's only a couple of those but i'll show you one in first corinthians chapter nine first corinthians chapter nine and look what paul says here verse 19 he says for though i am free from all men i have made myself a servant to all that i might win for the gospel the more to the jews i became as a jew that i might win jews to those who are under the law as under the law that i might win those who are under the law to those who are without the law as without the law that i might win those who are without the lord of the weak i became weak that i might win the week i become all things to all men that by all means i might save some and i do this for the gospel's sake okay paul said i've made my servant myself a servant to all men but not for all men to use me as a doormat and just tell me what to do and i do whatever they ask no that's not what he says here in the context he's talking about humbling himself and trying to be able to connect with gentiles who don't have the law jews that do have the law to the weak uh he says i became weak i became all things to all men i i humbled myself to try to make connection with them uh i didn't live in a big house so i could relate to the poor you know i didn't wear fancy clothes so i could relate to people who couldn't afford it on and on and on but this was for the gospel sake uh he did this and it did not mean that he just let everybody take advantage of him and use him no that's not what he meant when he said i became a servant of all now the reason i'm saying this to you is because of the way this is so misunderstood in the christian world folks let me define to you what i believe it truly means to be a servant to others it means here's my definition let's put it on the screen it means to serve others biblically means to figure out what is best and most needed for their welfare and doing that for them it means to figure out what is best and most needed for their welfare and then doing that for them you understand what i'm saying jesus said this he said i came not to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many jesus didn't let people push him around jesus didn't let people uh take advantage of him tell him what to do jesus didn't do everything everybody asked him to do uh no he was a servant but he came to do for us what we needed to be done and when he needed to rebuke the rich young ruler he did and when he needed to rebuke the pharisees and the religious leaders of israel he did and when he needed to rebuke his own disciples he did because that's what they needed that's what was best for them uh and then look what he says and i came to give my life as a ransom for many he came that was the ultimate definition according to philippians 2 as well uh the ultimate definition of how he came to be a servant what we needed more than anything else was for christ to shed his blood on the cross and pay for our sin so that we could have eternal life and go to heaven and in serving us that's what he did okay but he was not a doormat and he was not a milk toast now in the same way i believe that for you and me to serve others we need to be humble yes we need to not lord things over them yes we need to not take advantage of people uh for our own benefit yes but we need to do our best to care for them and love them yes but we need to have boundaries or or we will we will destroy our lives and our families there are times we need to say no no because this is not what's best for that person that's asking it and no because i'm sorry i have some boundaries around my life for my family and for my own personal health and and i'm sorry uh i can't do it now people don't like it when you tell them this and they will accuse you sometimes of not being a servant hey that's hard it was very hard for me i i would take that home and i would say lord am i really not a servant i mean it would really make me feel terrible can you do this wedding can you do this this or that i'm sorry i can't what kind of servant are you i thought you supposed to be our servant some weekends i would have had five weddings according to this and i think of simone biles who said in the olympics that she for her own uh health uh needed to put some boundaries around herself and i watched how so many people uh just uh absolutely castigated this girl for doing that with some of the cruelest and meanest things you could ever imagine look i don't know her and i don't know anything about her situation but i'm sorry uh there's nothing wrong with people putting boundaries around themselves for their own personal health if that's what they believe they need to do it doesn't mean they're not a servant and it doesn't mean they're not patriotic you know this is what sometimes we have to do as as christians and as pastors and as christian leaders so let me close by saying want to be a servant to uh your uh people that you know okay figure out what's best for them and what they need the most and do that if it's to do something very nice and generous fine if it's to hey rebuke them and admonish them it's fine that's being a servant to them i remember when i was working at the good news mission and i was a brand new christian and i had all kinds of bad habits that i developed over 21 years but one of them that was terrible was procrastination i could procrastinate anything in fact i'd even decided to kill myself before i came to christ and i could i procrastinated that yeah well while i was there one of the chaplains called me into a little private meeting with him and said lon i need to talk to you and i said fine and he said to me you know what you were never gonna really amount to much anything for the lord if you don't get on top of being a procrastinator this is a terrible habit that you have and i've observed you and blah blah blah blah i mean you know this was a serious admonishment i walked out of there feeling like i've been spanked by this guy uh verbally but you know what he was totally absolutely right and i went to work on it with the lord's help and by god's grace i got on top of it and to but to this day i remember this conversation it was 50 years ago but was he my servant in talking to me like that yes would he have been my servant just for never saying anything and just let me go on my merry way and and live my procrastinating life no no and what about husbands and wives hey i can't tell you how many times my wife brenda comes to me and says look me in the eyes lon solomon uh she says lawn neil solomon baby i'm in real trouble uh and she will exhort me uh and admonish me about something and folks uh that i'm i'm sure i needed it even though i may not like it that's her being a servant to me not just letting me do whatever i feel like doing uh but calling me on the carpet for my own protection and my own help uh my own benefit uh this is being a servant as well and the very few times it goes the other way too but it doesn't usually go the other way usually comes my way this is being a servant too we are servants of our children that's right we are servants of everybody but that means we figure out what's best for our children and that's what we do it doesn't mean we let our children tell us what to do and no matter what they say we give in and say yes because we're their servants no absolutely not absolutely not when i was raising my children i was their servant i drove their car pools uh i went and with them to buy clothes i um had bible devotions with them at night i had prayer every night on my knees with them i would lay down in the bed and listen to odyssey tapes from focus on the family with them i would take them skiing i would do anything to try to fishing to try to uh be with them about but there were certain things they needed that i made sure they got i remember table manners for example i'm a big believer in table matters i believe people judge our character and how cultured we are by our table manners we had a rule at the table this is before jill came and scrambled egged our life but we would all sit my three boys brenda and i at the table and napkin would go in our lap hand our elbow would go off the table knife would go back on the plate after we cut our food and we chewed with our mouth shut we didn't talk with food in our mouth we chew with our mouth shut and i had a rule if i kept you chewing with your mouth open once you leave the table for one minute if i catch you chewing with your mouth open twice dinner is over for you and there's no snacks afterwards uh you say that's horrible no it isn't who wants to go out and sit with somebody across the table going and chewing with their mouth wide open and showing me all the food in their mouth not me no i don't think you do either well who's going to teach my kids that if i don't teach them and you say how'd your boys do with that james did fine john did fine my middle son justin he missed more meals than i can even remember but you know to this day he chews with his mouth shut and even when he takes percep he was a lawyer but when he takes prospective uh associates out uh that they're thinking about hiring he told me i take him out for a meal and i watch whether they chew with their mouth shut or not and if they don't that's one big strike against them with hey how did he learn that because i did what i i figured out what i knew was best for them and that's what i did and that's how i served them it would have been much easier for me to sit at the table and just not invested the effort and go chill any way you want i don't care no that's not being their servant you understand what i'm saying to you uh okay my boy john was born with a big eye beam right down his backbone boy that boy was tough and and now he's the sweetest thing in the world i love john to death uh well i always loved him but i mean i love being around him he's just so pleasant but i can't tell you how many times i had to discipline that boy growing up and one time i said to him john i cannot let you get away with with being stubborn and hard-headed and rebellious and and and it like this i'm not gonna let you grow up to be a bozo now we knew who bozo the clown was back then if you don't uh google it and i was on him friends i'm telling you like a chicken on a june bug if you don't know that you're not from the south like white on rice but hey that's because i was his servant and i loved him and i knew this is what was best for him um okay jamie was kind of the golden boy i didn't have to do much anything with him except when he was cutting the lawn he would come in and complain about snakes in the backyard and and he didn't want to cut it he wanted to quit and i go no you're not quitting go up back out there just run over him with the lawnmower to fertilize the grass hey i'd say jamie he with the he who has the lawnmower always wins just apply go right over all right i think you get my point folks yes we are servants of the lord and many times when i was a pastor i would have to say lord jesus i'm doing this as unto you i would not do this for the church i would not do this for people i would not do this for anyone lord but i'll do it for you and if you ask me to do this i'll do it for you lord we are servants of christ and we are also servants of people not to be taken advantage of not to be used not to be uh a a a doormat but to figure out what they need whether it's kind or whether it's a tough figure out what people need and to the best of our ability serve them and give that to them now you may not agree with what i've said after 40 years of being a pastor and told i should do everything under the sun because i'm a servant uh this is what i've learned and it does take some uh discernment to know what you should do and what you shouldn't do and i i suggest we always pray about that but there are times to say no and you still can be and are a servant of christ and a servant of that person sometimes the best way to serve them is say no let's pray dear lord jesus thank you for talking to us today about being servants and i pray father that you would help us to have a biblical understanding of what this means and lord to be humble and to be anxious to help others but at the same time to be disciplined enough to have boundaries for the sake of our own health and our families uh health and lord help us to understand that being servants doesn't mean always saying yes always doing what people want us to do no sometimes it means saying no and doing what people need even though that may not be exactly what they want dear jesus make us biblical servants and we pray this in jesus name and everybody said amen and amen and what do we say brother what is that what is it tell me sister that's preaching you bet it is all right don't forget we're going to israel october 4. i want you to go with us who knows when you'll have another chance to do it come on call me and uh and and and and join us as we go the holy land don't have a lot of room but we got a little call me call me call me god bless you see you next week on live [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Lon Solomon Ministries

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Length: 37min 18sec (2238 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021