Dedicated To The Master
04/27/08 AM
Text: Luke 1:46-49
Introduction
Last Lord’s Day I closed the evening lesson quoting the words of Mary found in Luke 1:46-49, expressing the hope that we like Mary could rejoice in the Blessings given by God, the great things done by the Mighty One as Mary said. And I think it safe to say that all of us gathered here today desire the blessings of God and so I’d like us to consider something about Mary that made her understand, appreciate, and receive the great things done by the Mighty One. We find the key word in verse 48: “For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave…” This is not the first time Mary has referred to herself as such, we find it first in verse 38: “And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” Mary did not just believe what had been told to her, she dedicated herself to the Master and to His will. Bondservants in the Bible were slaves who chose to stay with their masters after their time of service was done. Their ears would then be pierced to signify their love for their masters. (Deuteronomy 15:12-16) The apostle Peter called himself a bondservant of Jesus Christ in II Peter 1:1. So did Paul in Romans 1:1 and Titus 1:1, and so did James in James 1:1, and so did Jude in Jude verse 1, and so did John in Revelation 1:1 and the word is also applied to Moses in Revelation 15:3. What did this word mean to them? It meant they had voluntarily given up their freedom to walk away from their Master. They said, "I love you, Lord, and I don’t want to leave You." It meant that their lives had been Dedicated To The Master.
We can benefit from the blessing of God through belief in Christ but those blessings become clearer and greater when we dedicate everything to Christ for His glory, His use, and His purposes.
Romans 6:13 “and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”
We honor God by dedicating our lives to Christ, and we dedicate our lives to Christ by giving Him the things He desires most: our love and our service
I.Love Completely
A.The more we love God, the more we will depend and trust on Him to use our lives for His purposes.
1.Mark 12:29 “Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”
2.The love we give to and receive from God becomes a perpetual cycle of faith.
a.When we love God, who is Love, with all our hearts, our hearts grow to receive the massive outpouring of Love from the Father.
b.When we love God, who is Goodness, with all our souls, (attitudes, emotions, and motives) we will begin to grow in the Spiritual grace of God.
c.When we love God, who is Truth, with all our minds, to accept His truth as The Truth we grow in wisdom and understanding of His will.
d.When we love God, who is the creator of all life, with all our strength, every action and every word spoken according to His will, we will be strengthened to presevere and conquer for His sake.
B.When we determine to love God the love that is received back overcomes this world.
1.1 John 4:16-19 “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us.”
2.We receive God’s love through loving Him. When we dedicate our whole selves, heart, soul, mind, and strength to Him, it is returned through His blessings multiple times.
a.And the greatest blessing is not the peace He grants, or the joy He gives, or the hope He provides, although He gives all that and more.
b.When we dedicate our whole selves to Him and seek His Kingdom first, He is faithful to bless us with all that we need. (Matthew 6:33)
c.The greatest blessing is the blessing of His presence in our lives.
Read Isaiah 43:1-7
Matthew 28:20b “…lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
3.With God’s blessings in our lives and His presence in our hearts we are ready to be His servants in the world.
II.Serve Humbly
A.We follow the perfect example in service to the Master.
1.John 13:3-5, 12-17
2.John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
a.Jesus shows us that being Dedicated To The Master means serving others.
b.Not for praise or recognition, not for power or profit or gain but because we have been first served by God’s plan.
c.He has put us on a path that He has promised to travel with us, a path where He provides for our needs whatever they may be.
d.The path of servant hood in dedication to the master is the intentional practice of putting other’s needs before our own because we have confidence that our Master, our Father, our God, is taking care of us.
3.To serve in the name of Jesus means to do so in the very same nature, attitude, motivation, and example that was Christ’s.
a.When Christ said “Follow me” He wasn’t talking about just physically following Him wherever He was going that day.
b.He was instructing all of us to faithfully follow the example He set, the lessons He taught, and the commands He gave.
4.Jesus told us that when we serve the needs of the least of His brothers, we are serving Jesus Himself! (Matthew 25:40)
III.Be Sanctified and Holy
A.Reconciliation and blessings begin with belief.
1.When we are saved by faith through Jesus Christ we are reconciled with God and welcomed into His Kingdom with joy and celebration.
2.As we live our lifes dedicated to the Master our relationship deepens. As we grow in our love and service to God our priorities and perspectives are transformed by the renewing of our minds.
3.We become set apart, sanctified, for God’s use and God’s blessings. We become His ambassadors to the world, and the attitudes, perspective, and priorities of Christ become progressively more evident in our lives.
4.Colossians 3:17 “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
B.Being Dedicated To The Master we become more like Him
1.1 Peter 1:15 “but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
a.Holiness is the process of regular people living for the purposes of God’s Kingdom and being transformed to reflect God’s character as demonstrated by Christ.
b.In the beginning we are told that man was created in God’s own image that is sacred! When sacred lives are dedicated to the Master they become holy, sanctified through love and service Dedicated To The Master.
Conclusion:
The path Dedicated To The Master is not and easy path, it is not a comfortable path, it in not promised to be prestigious or even pretty. But it is promised to be a better path, a blessed path, a path traveled with the Lord God Himself. It is the path of victory and triumph in this world and for eternity to come.
Invitation
