Address—Paul Hadley
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On my way up here this morning I was enjoying him and the appendix.
51 in the appendix.
Maybe we could sing that one and.
Uh, in my youth we used to sing this frequently when we went and visited Brooklyn. They sing it over there with the chorus of.
Behold what, behold, what manner of love the Father hath be stood upon us?
So let's give that a try.
#51 in the appendix.
Oh, what a gift my father gave me.
When he bestowed his son.
To say for Oh and guilty man fights and defiled undone.
Behold, what manner of love, what manner of love, the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we, that we should be called, should be called.
The Sons of God didn't realize it would be that much of a solo. Does anybody know that? Nobody else knows it, uh.
Alright, well, let's give it a try.
For I was lost and vile indeed to send a willing praise.
I'll God in mercy interposed and turn my night today.
Behold, what manner of love, what manner of love, the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we, that we should be called, should be called.
Now I can call the savior mind all unworthy still.
I'm sheltered by his precious blood.
Beyond the reach of him, behold what manner of love.
What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that.
Way that we should be called should be called the sons of God.
I'm all to trust in Jesus now and tell our choice abroad. Let thankful hymns of praise us in for Christ, the gift of God.
Behold what manner of love, what manner of love, the Father hath bestowed upon us.
That way that we should be called should be called the sons of God.
Well, that was like my favorite hymn 150 years ago. Now it hardly doesn't exist. Beautiful hymns. I'll look at that. Come all who trust in Jesus now and tell our joys abroad. Let thankful hymns of praise ascend for Christ, the gift of God. Let's give thanks.
Our God and Father, we thank thee for our Lord Jesus Christ, the unspeakable gift from thyself.
We think how that we have been.
Redeemed. We've been rescued and we think how much we owe the and how much we owe him. And we pray that they'll stir our hearts this evening to.
Certainly as we ought.
So we asked Thy health and Thy blessing on thy word, as we open it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
00:05:00
Hadn't mind to turn to the Gospel of Luke.
And consider.
Service or the servants and Luke.
And we'll start in Chapter 16. There's lots of these.
Servants and Luke.
Just a point or two about each one.
I'll read verse from verse one. And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man which had a Stewart, And the same was accused unto him, that he wasted his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of the given account of thy stewardship? For thou mayest be no longer steward.
Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do?
For my Lord taketh away from me the stewardship. I cannot dig to beg. I am ashamed. I resolve what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So he called everyone of his Lords debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much OST thou unto my Lord. And he said, 100 measures of oil. And he said in him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write, Fifthly, 50.
Then set it to another, And how much oest thou? And he said in 100 measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill in right for score.
And the Lord commended the unjust steward, because He had done wisely. For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
So the first servant or steward in this case is called an unjust steward.
And he was one who wasted.
His Lord had put him in charge of things.
And he didn't. He didn't handle his responsibilities wisely. He wasted.
And then we find that he did something else.
We read that he stole.
Or it doesn't save that especially. But he did steal from his master and this is how he did it. So he was in charge of all the debts and somebody owed 100 measures of oil and he realized he's about to lose his job. So he says to that person.
How much do you owe? Uh, and the man says I owe 100 measures of borough. They both knew what he owed.
And so he says to that man, sit down and let's change it to 50.
And so he stole from his master 50 measures of oil.
And he did the same thing with wheat for somebody else. And he did the same thing, I'm sure, with many other debtors, because his Lord had many debtors, people that the Lord had, many people that his Lord had, many people that owed things to him.
And he did it so that when he lost his job, he could go by and say.
Uh, Remember Me? I'm the guy who did your favor and, and you only had to pay 50 measures of oil instead of 100. You Remember Me and I'm kind of out of a place to live now. Uh, could you take me in? And so he provided for his future in that way.
But he he lost his job because he was a waster.
But when he knew he was losing his job, he did something else. He stole. He stole from his master.
All right. And the Lord, I believe, is the Lord Jesus here. Some people like to.
Point out that it's, uh, a small L, but I think it's the Lord Jesus.
He commended him not for what he had done, because there's nothing to commend in what he had done, but there was one thing he did commend, and that is this man. At least he was smart enough to know that he needed to prepare for his future.
And you, young men and young women, I wonder, have you prepared for your future?
00:10:02
He had got the matter of your soul's salvation settled for all eternity.
The Lord Jesus speaks of this man and says he's smarter than a lot of you people because you haven't prepared for your future. You haven't prepared for all eternity that's ahead of you. You have only this little life to live. And then there's that eternity ahead, and you have prepared for it. And so this wicked man who stole from his Master and wasted his goods, he was smarter than some of you people.
Are you smart? Have you prepared for your future?
So this man here, the point is he wasted and he stole, and so he's called an unjust steward. Alice turned over to chapter 19 of Luke.
We're gonna read about a man.
In verse 20.
Who did not steal?
From his master.
And he did not waste.
His master's goods.
But he was unfaithful.
Now let's read that Matthew. Sorry, Luke 19.
And verse 20 it says, another came saying, Lord, behold, here is thy town, which I have kept laid up in a napkin.
For a feared they, because thou art an austere man, thou take a step that thou layest not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow. Wherefore then gave us thou not my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required my own with usury?
And he said unto him that stood by, take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath 10 lbs.
You see in this account.
Somebody who is called a certain nobleman and I think we can all know that we're talking about the Lord Jesus here. It says they went away for into a far country.
That's in verse 12. And he called his servants and gave them each a pound.
He gave each one of those servants of his own repound.
Something that they were meant to use for him.
And one man took that pound and got 10 lbs out of it.
And the Lord when he came back says in verse 17 it says, well thou good servant, because thou has been faithful and very little, little have thou authority over 10 cities.
Another man was given his pound and he he used it wisely and.
He got five, made 5 lbs.
So.
Then they have his last man who had 1 LB and and he took it and he hid it.
And Matthew, you want to read about this, a similar account. It speaks of the talents.
Do you have any realization that the Lord has given you and to me?
A pound.
Or or a talent, something that we're meant to be using for him.
New young people with your right minds and your strong bodies.
Each one of you having different talents, different abilities. And the Lord's gone on a far journey, it says, to go claim for himself a Kingdom. And when he comes back, he wants to know what you're going to do, what you've, what you've done with all that he's given you.
Given some people abilities in sports, perhaps some people in abilities in arts or, uh, crafts. Others have abilities.
In communicating with people, uh, making friends.
Some have abilities.
00:15:01
Prayer and spending time with the with the word, there's just all kinds of things that people have abilities in and you could probably, if we're sitting under a tree together, you could probably talk with me and tell me what you think you're good at.
And then?
If it was the Lord, he would be saying, now what? How are you going to use that for me? I think we heard this morning about a man who was good at baseball and he used it for the Lord.
Bobby Richardson.
Umm, and there's just all kinds of things that people are good at.
And how are they going to be using them for the Lord?
But the thought here that I want to bring out in this we might call him an unfaithful servant.
So he had the unjust servants.
And now in Luke 19 we have somebody who is an unfaithful servant, and the Lord calls him a wicked servant.
He took that pound that the Lord had given him to use for him.
He took it and he hid it in a napkin.
And he buried.
Now, I think we've already gone through what the talents or the pounds and I know I'm I'm mixing up two different variables. They're not the same ones, but I'm doing that for because I want to.
Uh, we already know what they remind us of.
So what? What would it be if?
What would it mean to us if if I had a pound and I buried it and the Lord said to me, how come you didn't give me usury on that? Why didn't you take that and put it in the bank at least instead of burying it?
What does that bring before us?
You know, I think the burying it and the hiding it is the answer.
At the very, very least.
I cannot hide that I'm a Christian. That's the very least I can do.
Not high that I'm a Christian.
You know, I might be able to.
Go out and be a missionary and have thousands of souls saved.
And if I did that, the Lord might say to me.
Well done, good and faithful servant. Be thou over 10 cities.
I haven't done that, but I mean.
To think, no, that's, uh, there's a reward there.
That would be a great thing.
Or maybe.
Maybe I don't have any ability to speak at all and to preach the gospel.
Maybe I happen to be a very good businessman and.
I make a lot of money that I use.
To help other people preach the gospel, or to serve the Lord in some other way, or to give to the poor?
Whatever.
And the Lord might come to say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. These are five cities.
But the very very least I can do.
Is not hide that thing in a napkin, Wrap it up and hide it in a napkin and bury it. The very least I can do is somehow or other let other people know that I'm a Christian.
I'm afraid that's what.
All that's all that most of us do. We're all one talent people, I suppose.
That's the very least we can do.
End.
Reminds me of the client's over there, see Norm's face and we're just saying this morning, uh, about all the things that we could be doing.
And, uh, and I remember I, I said to him, I know that on my deathbed, I will regret all the things that I haven't done if I ever have the opportunity to have a deathbed.
Things that the Lord has.
Shown me that I could do for him and that I haven't done.
00:20:03
That'll be.
It'll be like somebody who, let's say is an investor in stock and and was told that you can buy this stock for $1.00.
And, uh, well, I heard of.
Uh, no, I'm just getting into that. But, uh, but, uh, and then the stock becomes very, very valuable and it's worth hundreds of dollars, let's say. And you look back and say, oh boy, I wish I'd done what I was told and bought that for only a dollar.
I have a feeling that you and I.
Or at least me, maybe not you. We'll have those regrets.
As we.
Come to the end of our life, many of us.
Look out at others, and I see others who are doing things that Lord much more than I.
But.
How we might regret.
Not taking more advantage of all that the Lord has given to us.
So anyway, we have the unjust, uh, servant, we have the unfaithful servant, and I guess we have the good and faithful servant too, the one who has spent his time for the Lord. Let's turn over to Luke chapter 12 now.
And we will find.
Faithful and wise servant.
That's in verse 42. I'll read that.
The Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise servant whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household?
To give them their portion of meat in due season.
That's the answer before the question in a way.
Now I'll consider a little bit what we have here in the chip 12:00 we have.
And verse 31.
Rather seek ye the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Fear not, little flock, it's your father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
You see, it's something that.
Is already in the bag. You know, if I go back to that stock that was selling for a dollar, I might, might buy it for a dollar and then it might become worthless because I don't really know just because somebody told me that it's worth something going to be worth something. I don't really know that it's going to get better.
This one is, shall we say, in the bag. It's all settled.
It's the Kingdom is his, and it's his good pleasure to give it to you and to me.
If only we'll do just.
What we have here haven't said yet.
Only we had to, Just what we have here. He wants to give us a part in the Kingdom.
You know, little kids, we, I guess older folks give up the idea that little kids dream of being kings and Queens.
Having people to be in charge of and all that.
Uh, God says to you, I want to give you the Kingdom, and this is what you have to do to get it.
Now this is the part we don't want to read very much.
Sell that ye have, and give alms. Provide yourselves bags which wax not all the treasure in the heavens that faileth not where no thief approaches, neither moth prompteth.
Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning.
To summarize what we have here in this chapter.
We have the things that a servant ought to be doing.
And they all involve.
Work.
Of some kind.
Or providing for work.
Or expectation.
Those are the two things that.
The master of the house is looking for when he comes back to see who is the good and the faithful servant.
The work that you've done or how you've handled the talents that he's given you, the pound that he's given to you.
And the expectation of his return.
00:25:05
I really enjoyed that little story of Albert Hagel coming home and.
And seeing his daughter in the windows and her waiting for him, that kind of warmed my heart.
But that's the thought. Are you looking for the Lord to come back? He may not come back in your lifetime.
I'm not saying, well, it won't, That's not the issue. The point is that there's the reward for you to be looking for and expecting him.
Is not the reward for predicting the right date. There's no reward at all for that.
The reward?
Is for.
The expectation I get that in here.
So as far as the service it says you're let your in verse 35, let your loins be girded about.
And your lights burning.
Your line skirted about. That means you're ready to work. You know in the old days when they they dressed in these long robes, if you wanted to get anything done, you had to. You had to gird your loins. That means you tie up your ropes so you can be free to work.
So let your loins be girded about and your light burning. That means you don't have your talent hidden in the ground. You have a testimony. People know that you're a believer. Somehow. You've got to get it out that you're a believer.
I'll leave that up to you how to figure that out.
But somehow it has to be known by others that you're a believer.
So then we have in verse 36 and and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.
That's the expectation part.
There's a special reward for those who are.
Looking for his return.
There's a special reward.
Or for you, if you're kind of anticipating the Lord to come maybe today. And I like that, that plaque I.
Seen it in many places. I kind of wish I had on myself. I don't. That says perhaps today, a little reminder, perhaps when you leave the door, leave your house. Maybe today is the day of the Lord will come.
Because there is a special reward and it says about that.
Verse 37 For those servants that have his the expectation of his return.
He says blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily, I send you that. He shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them. So that's the reward that He's going to give for you and for me. We're kind of looking forward to Him coming back. And if we're thinking about it, maybe today, maybe today He's gonna serve us.
Just like he washed the apostles feet and served them.
Lord, glory is the serve us.
If only we'll be looking for him.
There's a special reward for service also.
That's in.
That's in the 44th verse of the truth. I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he has for one.
Who is serving him? Blessed is that. I guess we did read verse 43. Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing.
So there's a reward for expectation and there's a reward for service.
Flip over to.
Chapter 16 and verse 13 for one verse.
No verse 13 No servant can serve 2 masters for either. He will hate the one.
And love the other, or else you will hold to the one and despise the other.
Cannot serve God in amendment.
00:30:02
So who are we gonna serve?
Do the rewards and that we read about here and Luke move us at all? They should.
They should move us.
Does it matter to you? Do you love the Lord Jesus? I know you do.
And you know, we read in Galatians, I like to summarize it and it says by love serve one another. But I like to summarize it and summarize it like this. Love surfs. That's true in families, that's true in husbands and wives. Love serves. I love to serve my wife.
She loves to serve me sometimes too, but love serves.
You love the Lord.
One of the ways we show it is to serve them in some little way.
I guess we should point out also in Luke 12 verse 45, there's, there is, uh, another kind of servant, the unexpected servant, somebody who definitely doesn't think the Lord's coming back anytime soon.
And there's no use watching too much, no use doing too much because.
He's not there to watch.
My son in the Dominican Republic has a lot of workers that work as fields. Sometimes he looks when they think he's not watching and he he says some of them will hold a pickaxe in position.
Like this must be hard.
They just sit there and position ready for them to see him come. When he comes in, they go ahead and finish the stroke.
You know, I think if the if we got the news over there somehow or over the radio or whatever, that the Lord was coming tomorrow, I think they'd be all like that. We'd be out there preaching the gospel.
We're like those servants who are holding a pickaxe.
Wait until their master comes home. You know, uh, it's almost funny, but it's. But it's sad too, when you realize that we're just as bad as them.
So we have in verse 45 of Luke 12 That unexpected servant, and it says, But if that servant say in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming, he doesn't even say with his mouth, He says it in his heart.
This is what happens when we lose the sense that the Lord is is near when he's coming, perhaps today.
This is what happens, it tells us.
In this verse 45.
He shall be, and shall begin to beat the men, servants and maidservants, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken.
Eat and drink with the drunken.
Means that he becomes self indulgent. He just, he does anything. Whatever gives him joy, they live it up.
Extravagance.
My extravagance in the world.
Is a testimony to my failure and expectation.
Every bit of extravagance that I have might would be a testimony to my failure in expecting the Lord to come.
The other part of this is that he.
Begins to beat men's servants and maidservants.
He begins to.
Abuse authority.
He thinks he's in charge of other servants that answer to the Lord himself. With Bruce, Conrad often mentions that the uh.
Organizational charts and businesses where you have, uh, the boss and then maybe two vice presidents and, or, or four or whatever, then a bunch of workers and everybody answers to somebody and then somebody else answers to somebody else. They call that the organizational charts.
And he has pointed out to us that's that's not how it is.
In the in the Christian world.
The organizational charges like this, the boss, the Lord Jesus, and all of us answering directly to Him.
00:35:08
But when we lose the sense that the Lord might be coming some, we start to beat our fellow.
All believers put em down.
Disrespect them and make myself in charge of them.
So there's two things that we have here.
That, uh, show that I'm losing the sense that the Lord is at hand. One is self indulgence and the other is the abuse of authority.
So those are the some of the servants in Luke the Unjust, who wasted and stole.
The Unfaithful 1.
He didn't waste your steel, but he was unfaithful in that which was committed to him.
Then there was the good servant who received the well done.
And the faithful and wise servant who?
Serve the Lord.
And expected his return.
And then this bad example of the unexpected servant.
There's one other service I'd like to consider, and that's in Luke 17.
Verse 7.
A little bit of a different.
Umm, so I say take on service.
Luke 17. Seven. But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he has come from the field, go and sit down to meet, and will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may suck, and gird thyself, and serve me till I have eaten and drunken, and afterwards thou shalt eat and drink. Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I try not.
So likewise, yeah, when you 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.
You know, if I was out there on the mission field.
If I was out there.
Preaching the Gospel.
If I was out there day and night serving the Lord.
Feeding the poor, helping people who are in trouble.
Spending my time in prayer.
Reading the word of God at every moment I could.
If I devoted my life.
In in total faithfulness.
To the one who is my Lord and master.
I could only say that I was an unprofitable servant.
I've only gone.
What I was instructed to do anyway.
I have a feeling if I did any of those things very much, I'd be.
Thinking I was pretty good, but if I did all those things.
I'd be only doing what I ought to do anyway.
I was here. I just be an ordinary servant.
You know that's the that's true.
In this illustration, that the Lord gave is true.
We're so indebted to him that if we devoted the rest of our life.
It would just be the least that we could do.
And yet he is not that way with us.
Humanly speaking, it says. Does he think that servant? No, that's his, That's what he ought to do.
Yeah, we have a Lord and master who if we do anything.
Just even if we let other people know we're a Christian.
We do anything.
He rewards us.
Well, so we have these servants. I hope they're.
In some way, a little bit of encouragement to myself.
00:40:03
Perhaps to you?
To not be so such a waster.
Such a unfaithful servant.
Oh, that we could receive that.
Reward.
I think it would be such a reward just to be called a good and faithful servant, if only we had just that.
I think that would be worth.
More than being over 10 cities to me if it could only be said that.
But may we seek after these things?
Because the Kingdom is his, and his to give.
We are his servants.
As unprofitable as we are.
Let's close in prayer.
Our Lord Jesus Christ.
We acknowledge all of that was done for us, all that that was given to us.
We.
To feel how.
Little we've done for thee.
Thou art worthy of much more.
We pray that they'll help us to have our eyes on eternity.
Help us to.
Confess thee with our mouth as our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Help us to serve the.
The little corner, wherever we are.
Help us do daily have the expectation of thy return.
Perhaps today.
Like before.
Anything from thyself this this day. Think before the fellowship we've enjoyed together the times together in Johner. Thy word and John are thy presence.
Good thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, and thy name, Amen.