Serving Your Master

You have to choose because you cannot be a slave with two masters.

John 8:34-36  Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin.  35  A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever.  36  So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.

Matthew 6:24  "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Deuteronomy 13:4 Serve only the Lord your God and fear him alone. Obey his commands, listen to his voice, and cling to him.

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The news is filled with stories of war everyday, they are evidence of the spiritual battle that we cannot see, the battle wages on in the physical and spiritual realm. You may not like to think about it but there is a relentless force for evil that will stop at nothing to get you to choose any of his options over the single best choice.

Our loyalty to God is constantly being challenged just as it was for Adam and Eve back in the Garden of Eden. Satan is always questioning God's right to have our praise and worship. He wants to be God and he will stop at nothing to have us treat him that way. Satan knows that we were made to worship and that we will serve something or somebody so he is always looking to take advantage of this God given trait.

There is a lot at stake and we need to keep in mind some important advice:

Remember That God Won't Share 

1 Corinthians 8:6, Exodus 20:3-6, Deuteronomy 6:14-16

Over and over again God told the Israelite's that they needed to make a decision. They could choose from a long list of gods, they could choose to serve themselves, or they could choose the real God. God made it clear that he will not share what belongs to him with anything else.

Don't Serve The Things The World Serves 

Luke 16:13, James 4:4, 1 John 2:15-16

There is one true God and since is the only one that means there is nobody like him. Therefore he alone is to be worshiped and served. If you truly love God then you will have an unfavorable opinion of the world and it's philosophy.

Don't Value The Things The World Values

Matthew 6:19, 6:33, Luke 12:20-21

Jesus cautioned us to crave or value the right things. The world finds pleasure in craving what they can see, the toys that they have, pride in their accomplishments at work or school, all of the things that are temporary.

We love to seek our own kingdom, to stress how good we are and build up our treasure, we burden ourselves with the pursuit of the temporary. Seeking God's kingdom means that I must set aside my own kingdom and declare my allegiance with the eternal kingdo

Who You Serve Is Who You Trust
Romans 6:16, 18  Don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

Do you serve yourself? Do you serve money? If you think about it, whatever it is that you serve, that is the thing that you are putting your trust in. Why would you serve something you don't trust? If you feel secure enough to trust in something then it is reasonable to assume that you will probably serve that thing.

In our previous post we saw that Jesus called us all slaves, we are all serving something or someone, Jesus made it clear that a slave is usually a slave until the day they die. Because we are “in Christ” (Romans 6:11; 8:1), and He died in our place (Romans 5:6-8), we are counted dead with Him. I have become a slave to righteous living!

It is clear that I cannot serve both God and mammon, I cannot serve the god's that the rest of the world serves, they all want my full attention and my allegiance. I must choose everyday who I will serve, I must choose to serve the Lord wholeheartedly.(Joshua 24:14)