The Parable Of The Diligent Servant

Many people start out in the Christian life very enthusiastic about coming to church, about witnessing, about Bible reading and prayer. Soon the world’s attraction is too much for them and pulls them away from the center of their Christian experience. The world is too much with them.

“Am I a soldier of the cross,

A follower of the Lamb?

And shall I fear to own His cause,

Or blush to speak His name?”

(Isaac Watts)

Becoming a Christian does not make you an angel, it makes you a soldier. A soldier of the cross.

The apostle Paul writes,

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).

This is present tense.

2. “Keep your lamps burning.”

We are to keep our testimony and witness brightly shining in the world around us. Like the old fashion lighthouse that guided the ships safely to shore, we too must be a beaming light directing people to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The key to this is the assumption that we have access to the provisions. A lamp does not burn on its own. In fact, if not fueled properly the lamp will go out.

We have access to all the resources we need to be everything God wants us to be.

Our responsibility is to connect, and keep connected, to that resource and keep our lamps burning brightly right where we are.

I believe the key here is that we are to be burning brightly where we are. You cannot shine where you are not. Where you are right now, your home, your community, your business, your workplace, your school is where you shine. Keep the bright shining.

We have a responsibility to shine where we are, and God has made available to us the resources we need to shine brightly.

Our responsibility is to keep at it.

We are to stay dressed for action and keep our lamps burning for Jesus Christ. And shine where you are!

II. Cultivate a Spirit of Expectation.

“You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (40).

This is the undergirding of our Christian experience. Our hope is not in this world alone, but in the coming of the Son of Man, and that He is coming for me. A personal expectation.

Listen to what the apostle Paul says.

“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Corinthians 15:19).

If you are miserable today, it is because your hope is in this life. Nothing in this world will last. When I am expecting my joy and peace to come from this world, I am of all men most miserable.

On the other hand, if my expectation is in Jesus Christ I am of all men most happy. My peace comes from Him. My joy comes from knowing that He is coming back for me.

“When this passing world is done,

When has sunk yon glaring sun,

When I stand with Christ in glory,

Looking o’er life’s finish story

Then, Lord, shall I fully know,

Not till then, how much I owe.”

(Robert M. McCheyne)

Every day I live, I should live in the expectation that this could be the day that Jesus returns. Never lose sight of this.