Servants Not Celebrities – Part Three

Matthew 24: 44 – 47

All co-servants, check yourself on this one text.  Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…” (Matthew 6:33).  Much is said about spiritual authority without really knowing what it is.

Spiritual authority is the authority to serve, authority to put yourself last, authority to say no to the world’s idea of self-promotion. Jesus has told us His secret … and we are authorized to imitate Him. To obey means putting yourself at the whim of the needs of others, to give up your rights and humble yourself, leaving the promotion and control up to God.

Aficionados of old war movies know the winner of seven Academy Awards “Bridge Over the River Kwai.” Filmed in 1957 this film directed by David Lean won Best Picture of the Year. Anyone having seen it will never forget the theme music. Remember whistling it?

This epic is the story of prisoners of war held by the Japanese in the Kwai valley. It depicts how they were tortured and abused. At times their exploitation is gruesome. Their miserable state is graphically portrayed.

There is another account of the events that happened there the secular media would not dare tell. It is a book entitled “Through the Valley of the Kwai” by Ernest Gordon.

It also depicts the brutality suffered. It further accounts the infighting among the group as an outgrowth of their sense of frustration and futility. However, it tells the  true story of how one member of that tortured company had a New Testament. Lacking anything to do, an enlisted man asked that a portion be read one day. Soon all the men were listening. It transformed the camp completely. Infighting stopped and kind reactions resulted from mistreatment. One day a train load of wounded Japanese soldiers stopped in the compound. Forgetting all about themselves the prisoners comforted and ministered to them. They said they were merely doing what Jesus taught we should do to our enemies.

As spiritual prisoners of war we too need to respond in a like manner.

Here is another test: Jesus said, “I am come to seek and to save that which is lost.”  Then He added, “As my Father has sent Me, even so send I you.”  Are you sharing your faith in Christ in such a way as to try to encourage people to receive Him as Savior?

Yet, another test is found in II Corinthians 5: 19, 20. Therein, He said we are His ambassadors.  This role we can’t fulfill without Him and He won’t fulfill without us.

It is God’s word — “the word.”

It is God’s work — “reconciliation.”

It must be done in God’s way — “God… pleading through us.”

It really is not about us.

Concisely the following is our responsibility: “You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him” (Deuteronomy 13:4).