Who Do You Serve
Matthew 6:24 (NKJV)
24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
In context, this scripture is about money but the principle is the same. You are always serving someone or something, there is no question to that. The question is in who or what do you serve?
The word “serve” means to obey, submit, or yield. Most people simply serve their own desires. They submit or yield themselves to what they want. This is often even the motive for doing good, because it makes them feel good. These things they yield to start to define their lives. You know it. When you think of people, you typically think of the things they do or how they act. These actions are driven by their desires that they submit to and thus these are the things that they serve.
One of the great things the Bible does is it instructs us not to conform to these old and natural desires but to transform our lives after God and His ways (Romans 12:2). There is the understanding that once we do we become free from those bondages and get to live blessed and free.
We are bound by our own affections. As a pastor, I have seen this time and time again. Knowing this, the devil sends temptation disguised as what we want. We take the bait and these desires become our pursuits, and these pursuits become our bondages. The devil doesn’t mind if you have what you desire if it keeps you from serving God. You may get frustrated and say, “well how can I even know?” Well, Galatians 5:16 tells us, “I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” We know according to John 6:63, that the Word is Spirit. Walking according to the Word of God keeps us safe.
Look what Titus 3:3 says, “For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.” What stood out to me about this scripture was when it says, “serving various lusts and pleasures.” That’s the truth and if you take time to look at it, you will see too. We get so obsessed with what we want that we end up serving these things instead of enjoying them. It doesn’t have to be openly sinful or sinful at all. All the devil needs it to do is control us. Boom! Control equals bondage.
I am determined to not be controlled in life anymore by anything that does not produce righteousness. It is this worldly bondage that always leads us to death. No man was ever adulterous who refused to be controlled by desires. No one ever murdered, no one ever stole, nor did anything that hurt another human who was not controlled by their desire. In God we find true freedom, not just for us but for all we interact with.
Acts 17:28
For in Him we live and move and have our being…
Be Blessed,
Pastor Jeff
