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We are unprofitable servants

by Pastor Jim Brown
Horizon Christian Fellowship
(www.calvarychapel.com/hcfw)

Our Lord desires to bless us because He loves us. When we serve Him with our whole heart, we open up an all new way He can pour out His blessings on us. We receive blessings every time we bless another person. Jesus was always outwardly focused and seeking to minister grace to those around Him.

If we are, in our lives, truly desiring to bless others and minister grace, we are serving the Lord. But, as a caution or a warning as to motive, Jesus tells us in Luke 17:7-10 that serving God means we are serving God – not man.

The challenge we have before us today as given to us by this passage is:

1. Do we DESIRE to serve God and bless others no matter how insignificant and regardless of whether “man” ever sees or acknowledges us? We don’t have to “do” to be saved, but as we see the goodness of God in our lives and allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us the natural response to God’s love towards us will be to serve Him. The Lord’s heart is to be exalted above all else and when we serve with a heart of gratitude (the attitude of gratitude), we honor and please Him and give Him the glory and not ourselves.

2. Do we SERVE in ministry in some capacity whether as janitor, Sunday school teacher, musician, washing dishes, etc.? As we see God’s goodness and have allowed the Holy Spirit to work in and through us, and have the desire to serve our risen Savor out of our love for Him, have we stepped out of our “comfort zones” and actually began serving in the capacity in which He has called us. Sometimes the first step is the hardest but God doesn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of boldness, love and a sound mind (2Tim 1:7).

3. Do we WORK out of compulsion and can’t wait for someone to take over for us...OR with the heart to serve our Savior by serving others? Or are we serving out of necessity instead of calling? God honors our obedience to seeing a need and stepping out in faith to meet that need. If, however, we don’t see that we are serving God through meeting the need then we will become a “complainer”, a “griper”, or worse BITTER and this is not at all the heart that God desires in His servants. If we are serving with this kind of heart we need to NOT BE SERVING! Unless we can allow God to bless us in all circumstances and understand that our life is not our own; unless we can open ourselves up to what God may want to do in our hearts and lives, we should not be serving (and living) under false pretense.

4. Do we expect to hear a “thank you”, a “pat on the back” or be publicly acknowledged? See #1 if this is true – because if we don’t have the right heart, the only thing we can do is pray that God changes our heart that we might be more like Him. If we are serving to serve our own egos, then we are not serving the Lord.

The bottom line of servant hood: Jesus tells us that “We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do”. When we serve God we may be unprofitable servants here on earth, but the rewards we are sending ahead are “Out of this world!” Our Lord desires to bless us because He loves us and even if we don’t serve – HE STILL LOVES US! God’s love NEVER fails.

Pray with me that if we serve, we serve only our Lord and not man or ourselves...

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Luke 17:7-10 But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? 8 And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? 9 Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. 10 So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

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posted by Pastor Jim @ 1:10 PM