I love bumper sticker theology. It may not always be the most sound theological statements, but they generally at least have the ability to make you think. The one in particular that I am thinking about said, "God is my Co-pilot." Do you remember the sticker? It took a great deal of heat. Perhaps that heat is what made a new saying come out. It has been seen more on church signs. Church sign theology is also kind of fun. This one says, "If God is your Co-Pilot, change seat
Text: Exodus 21:6 - This was a choice made by the a freed bond servant.
Proposition: When we become Christians we clothe ourselves with Christ and become His bond servants.
Galatians 3:27, “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Servants always wore their master’s livery.
Romans 6:16-18 --- Once were slaves to sin but we now serve righteousness.
Definition: Bond servant/ Slave doulos: to serve as a slave/ the subjection of your will to another.
Diakonos: one whose attention is focused solely on meeting the needs of others.
Body:
1 We Cannot Adequately Serve God Until He Owns Us.
a Matthew 22:37,38 “Love The Lord your God.........”
b Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters: for he will hate the one and love the other, or.......”
c Romans 12:1 - we need to be a willing sacrifice for God. Isaac would have offered up his own son.
1 One Cannot Adequately Serve God Until One Knows the Word Proclaimed By His Son
2
3 Let’s play ‘Let’s Pretend’. Let’s pretend that you work for me. In fact, you are my executive assistant in a company that is growing rapidly. I’m the owner and I’m interested in expanding overseas. To pull this off, I make plans to travel abroad and stay there until a new branch office gets established. I make all the arrangements to take my family and move to Europe for six to eight months. And I leave you in charge of the busy stateside organization. I tell you that I will write you regularly and give you directions and instructions. I leave and you stay.Months pass. A flow of letters are mailed from Europe and received by you at the national headquarters. I spell out all my expectations.
Finally, I return. Soon after my arrival, I drive down to the office and I am stunned. Grass and weeds have grown up high. A few windows along the street are broken. I walk into the Receptionist’s room. She is doing her nails, chewing gum and listening to her favorite disco station. I look around and notice the wastebaskets are overflowing. The carpet hasn’t been vacuumed for weeks, and nobody seems concerned that the owner has returned. I asked about your whereabouts and someone in the crowded lounge area points down the hall and yells, "I think he’s down there." Disturbed, I move in that direction and bump into you as you are finishing a chess game with our sales manager. I ask you to step into my office, which has been temporarily turned into a television room for watching afternoon soap operas."What in the world is going on, man?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, look at this place! Didn’t you get any of my letters?""Letters? Oh yes! Sure! I got every one of them. As a matter of fact, we have had a letter study every Friday since you left. We have even divided the personnel into small groups to discuss many of the things you wrote. Some of the things were really interesting. You will be pleased to know that a few of us have actually committed to memory some of your sentences and paragraphs. One or two memorized an entire letter or two - Great stuff in those letters."
"OK. You got my letters. You studied them and meditated on them; discussed and even memorized them. But what did you do about them?"
"Do? We didn’t do anything about them." (Improving Your Serve, Chuck Swindoll)
a 2 Timothy 2:15 – Study is needed to be an effective servant
b Romans 12:2 - There are some servants in the Church today that haven’t had their minds renewed in 20,30,40, or even 50 years.
c The toil of the average Christian would not exhaust a butterfly
d Mark 7:6-9 - Let us be wary of becoming as the Pharisees and forgoing the commandments of God to teach the commandments of men. Only constant study in the Word of God and prevent this from happening. The new doctrines and commandments we see cropping up in the churches today are because of the ignorance of man kind. “Professing themselves to be wise they become fools.” They spring from the desire of man to be the king and have control of every situation. Constant study and practice of the Word of God can keep this from happening. What happened to the statement, “where the Bible speaks, we speak, and where the Bible is silent, we are silent” ?
1 Be A Bond Servant For Life
a Matthew 24: 44-51 - we will face our Master eventually
b 2 Timothy 4:4-8 - Paul set the example
c A.D. 110. Ignatius, overseer of the church in Antioch, was arrested and sent to Rome for preaching Christ. Facing martyrdom, he wrote this to the church at Rome.
“Now I begin to be a disciple. I care for nothing of visible or invisible things so that I may but win Christ. Let fire and the cross, let the companies of wild beasts, let breaking of bones and tearing of limbs, let the grinding of the whole body, and all the malice of the devil, come upon me; be it so, only may I win Christ Jesus.”
When he was sentenced to be fed to lions, and could even hear their roaring, he said, “I am the wheat of Christ; I am going to be ground with the teeth of wild beasts that I may be found pure bread.”
Conclusion: Revelation 22:10
In a movie classic - National Lampoon’s Vacation - Chevy Chase - otherwise known as Clark Griswold - leads his family across the country to their dream vacation at Wally World. Along the way, Clark gets lost several times. One time happened to be in St. Louis. After several wrong turns, the houses got dirtier and the skin color got darker, leaving Clark and his family more and more scared. As time wore on, Audrey and her mom started having a very distressed look on their face and asking, “are you sure you know where we are?” Confidently Clark gave the answer every husband knows by heart, “no problem kids, we’re just getting to see a part of America you don’t see every day.” Right after that, several gun shots went off, and he quickly said, “roll em up.” Their trust in their fearless leader evaporated, and they were scared to death. Isn’t that the way we end up with our Good Shepherd. At the beginning of the trip like good sheep we say to Jesus, “I’ll follow you wherever you go!” But then Jesus says to kids - “I want you to go the honest way - don’t cheat.” He says to teens - “I want you to take the high road - don’t have sex.” He says to adults - “I want you to take the faithful way - bring your children up in the nurture of the Lord. Have devotions. Be regular in attendance.” And we say, “are you sure Lord? That’s kind of hard.” Then things start getting more difficult, Jesus says to spouses, “be willing to turn the other cheek. Don’t be so judgmental of your spouse.” He says to kids, “don’t be so lazy with your parents. Do your chores.” So we say, “are you sure, Lord?” The true sign of a sheep is one who is willing to follow - even through the valley of the shadow of death. Sheep are so trusting and so dumb that they don’t really think about where they’re going. They’re so enamored with their Shepherd’s voice that they’re willing to follow him ANYWHERE! Are you a sheep? Are you willing to follow?
- There are _____people that are living in _______ according to a 2000 census. Approximately, to my best guess only 40-50 of those attend a Church of Christ/Christian Church. The rest, ____ish, are lost and dieing and in need of a Savior. God needs servants in ______who will sacrifice their job,family,free time,fun,cars,money, and their own importance to bring the Savior to these lost and dying souls. Are you going to step forward and become that servant that God wants you to be? Are You ready to pick up that white livery of the bridegroom and be counted as a slave to Christ Jesus?
