I've been a church sermon listener this year. For years my vocation as a Pastor meant I prepared teachings for Sunday morning, and for other places from time to time. I was a sermon deliverer, and now in early retirement, have become a sermon listener.
At the church that I've been attending here in Florida, I have felt God speaking to me out of his word every week since I arrived in late December. I wanted to worship with others - I do believe in honoring the command of the book of Hebrews 10:24-25,
24 And let us
consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in
the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the
Day approaching.
In our society, many have lost their belief that being with others in worship, receiving the sacraments, praying, and coming back to the authority of the word of God in teaching is worth the time every Sunday... that's another post for a later time.
In yesterday's teaching, the Pastor spoke from the book of Esther. You know the story I hope. Esther is the "Miss Persia" of her time and is selected to be the King's (Xerxes) Queen. She is a Jew who was taken as a child, by force, to Persia. Her Uncle, Mordecai, is a smart man who God begins to providentially use in the capital city. He uncovers a plot that is created by an evil man - Haman - which, if succeeds, will exterminate all the Jews in Persia. This is, of course, is the same kind of evil that Hitler, some 2500 years later, would attempt to do. Evil seems to be a regular part of the world without God at the center.
The Pastor spoke about the words that Mordecai wrote to Queen Esther when she - at first - didn't want to get involved in the problem. Esther 4:14,
"For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance
for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family
will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for
such a time as this?”
I underlined the issue - and God spoke to me in this. When I first came to this winter retirement community, I remember walking through the community and feeling God's presence and words - "you are here on purpose". In other words, wherever we are, whatever our vocation, or retirement from vocation, whatever our situation, and even our positions, can we believe that God has placed us in this - providentially - for "such a time as this"?
The ultimate gift of God to us is salvation in Jesus Christ, but it is also God's will that we become disciples of Jesus, learning how to serve him. Serving is a "such a time as this" possibility. It can happen in a moment of time, or in a successive set of planned out moments. Serving means I'm doing what I'm doing, not for myself, but for God's will, his "let your Kingdom come, let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" purposes.
Again, I end this as I have recently - letting my mentor C. H. Spurgeon remind me of what this is about.
But Martha was distracted with much serving. - Luke 10:40
Her fault was not that she served: The condition of a servant is commendable in the Christian. “I serve” should be the motto of all the princes of the royal family of heaven. Nor was it her fault that she had “much serving.” We cannot do too much. Let us do all that we possibly can; let head and heart and hands be engaged in the Master’s service. It was no fault of hers that she was busy preparing a feast for the Master. Happy Martha, to have an opportunity of entertaining so blessed a guest; and happy, too, to have the spirit to throw her whole soul so heartily into the engagement. Her fault was that she grew “distracted with much serving,” so that she forgot Him and only remembered the service. She allowed service to override communion, and so presented one duty stained with the blood of another.
We ought to be Martha and Mary in one: We should do much service and have much communion at the same time. For this we need great grace. It is easier to serve than to commune. Joshua never grew weary in fighting with the Amalekites; but Moses, on the top of the mountain in prayer, needed two helpers to sustain his hands.
The more spiritual the exercise, the sooner we tire in it. The choicest fruits are the hardest to rear; the most heavenly graces are the most difficult to cultivate. Beloved, while we do not neglect external things, which are good enough in themselves, we ought also to see to it that we enjoy living, personal fellowship with Jesus.
See to it that sitting at the Savior’s feet is not neglected, even though it be under the specious pretext of doing Him service. The first thing for our soul’s health, the first thing for His glory, and the first thing for our own usefulness is to keep ourselves in perpetual communion with the Lord Jesus and to see that the vital spirituality of our faith is maintained over and above everything else in the world.
Charles Spurgeon's book, "Morning and Evening", published by Crossway Publishers
Peace to you today
Comments