Serving Two Masters

"No servant can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and money" (Luke 16:13).

In the original language, the word translated "money" was an Aramaic word, Mammon. This does not refer merely to money as a medium of exchange but also to a demonic spirit designed to promote a mind-set of ambition for riches, power and worldly gain. The word is capitalized in the original text because the people of Jesus' day thought of Mammon as a false god. Jesus was saying that those who spend their lives seeking worldly gain are idolaters. No one can serve two masters. No one can worship both the true God and a false god.

D. L. Moody about conviction of sin

“I would a great deal rather see a hundred men, thoroughly converted, truly born of God, than to see a thousand professed conversions where the Spirit of God has not convicted of sin. Don’t let us cry, ‘Peace,peace,’ when there is no peace. Don’t go to the man who is living in sin and tell him all he has to do is stand up and profess, without any hatred for sin. Let us ask God first to show every man the plague of his own heart that the Spirit may convict them of sin. Then will the work in our hands be real and deep and abide the fiery trials which will try every man’s labor.” -- D. L. Moody.

Listening to God Before Making a Decision

The man or woman who is wholly and joyously surrendered to Christ can't make a wrong choice - any choice will be the right one. - A.W. Tozer

I try to gather all the information and all the facts that are involved in a decision, and then weigh them up and pray over them in the Lord's presence, and trust the Holy Spirit to sway my mind in the direction of God's will. And God generally guides by presenting reasons to my mind for acting in a certain way. - J. Oswald Sanders

For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose - (Philippians 2:13)

Quotes about prayer

1. C.S. Lewis said, "The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in."

2. John Bunyan said, "He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day."

3. J. Sidlow Baxter said, "...Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons—but they are helpless against our prayers."

4. Martin Luther said, "Pray as if everything depends on God, then work as if everything depends on you."

5. William Law said, "There is nothing that makes us love a man so much as prayer for him."

How to respond to criticism by Martin Luther

"Martin, you are a liar, greedy, lecherous, a blasphemer, a hypocrite. You cannot stand before God."

To which Luther would respond:

"Well, yes, I am. And, indeed, Satan, you do not know the half of it. I have done much worse than that and if you care to give me your full list, I can no doubt add to it and help make it more complete. But you know what? My Saviour has died for all my sins - those you mention, those I could add and, indeed, those I have committed but am so wicked that I am unaware of having done so. It does not change the fact that Christ has died for all of them; his blood is sufficient; and on the Day of Judgment I shall be exonerated because he has taken all my sins on himself and clothed me in his own perfect righteousness."

What really matters

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.

Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear.
So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire.

The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won’t matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.
It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.

What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.
It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.

Written by Michael Josephson

I also want to hear from God, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master." Matthew 25:21

Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus

Our Lord came not just as a soul saver, but as a redeemer. The good news is not merely that our spirits do not end up in hell, but is instead that we will be saved to the uttermost, that our resurrected Lord has secured us completely. The effect of sin in the life of my precious little girl, the illness that leaves her so unsteady on her feet that she spends most of her days either in bed or in that wheelchair, this too will be beaten. Jesus, our hero, has promised to rescue my precious little maiden. RC Sproul Jr.

Because we have the hope of the resurrection of the body, one day Christ Jesus our LORD will wipe away all traces of sin... Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus

Isaiah 31

1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, And rely on horses, Who trust in chariots because they are many, And in horsemen because they are very strong, But who do not look to the Holy One of Israel, Nor seek the LORD!
2 Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster, And will not call back His words, But will arise against the house of evildoers, And against the help of those who work iniquity.
3 Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; And their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out His hand, Both he who helps will fall, And he who is helped will fall down; They all will perish together.God Will Deliver Jerusalem
4 For thus the LORD has spoken to me: “ As a lion roars, And a young lion over his prey (When a multitude of shepherds is summoned against him, He will not be afraid of their voice Nor be disturbed by their noise), So the LORD of hosts will come down To fight for Mount Zion and for its hill.
5 Like birds flying about, So will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending, He will also deliver it; Passing over, He will preserve it.”
6 Return to Him against whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted.
7 For in that day every man shall throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold—sin, which your own hands have made for yourselves.
8 “ Then Assyria shall fall by a sword not of man, And a sword not of mankind shall devour him. But he shall flee from the sword, And his young men shall become forced labor.
9 He shall cross over to his stronghold for fear, And his princes shall be afraid of the banner,” Says the LORD, Whose fire is in Zion And whose furnace is in Jerusalem. Isaiah 31

Man's Help

• Horses
• Chariots
• Horsemen
  

God's Fights for Mount Zion & its Holy Hill

• He Defends it
• He Delivers it
• He Preserves it

Outline

• Man's Wisdom vs. 1
• God's Wisdom vs. 2
• How God views man's strength vs. 3
• How God views His strength vs. 4-5
• Call to repentance vs. 6
• When Christ reigns vs. 7
• Finial Destruction vs. 8-9

Isaiah 30:19-33

19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; You shall weep no more.
He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; When He hears it, He will answer you.
20 And though the Lord gives you The bread of adversity and the water of affliction,
Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, But your eyes shall see your teachers.
21 Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “ This is the way, walk in it,”
Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left.
22 You will also defile the covering of your images of silver, And the ornament of your molded images of gold. You will throw them away as an unclean thing; You will say to them, “Get away!”
23 Then He will give the rain for your seed With which you sow the ground, And bread of the increase of the earth; It will be fat and plentiful. In that day your cattle will feed In large pastures.
24 Likewise the oxen and the young donkeys that work the ground Will eat cured fodder, Which has been winnowed with the shovel and fan.
25 There will be on every high mountain And on every high hill Rivers and streams of waters, In the day of the great slaughter, When the towers fall.
26 Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, And the light of the sun will be sevenfold, As the light of seven days, In the day that the LORD binds up the bruise of His people And heals the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar, Burning with His anger, And His burden is heavy; His lips are full of indignation, And His tongue like a devouring fire.
28 His breath is like an overflowing stream,
Which reaches up to the neck, To sift the nations with the sieve of futility; And there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, Causing them to err.
29 You shall have a song As in the night when a holy festival is kept, And gladness of heart as when one goes with a flute, To come into the mountain of the LORD, To the Mighty One of Israel.
30 The LORD will cause His glorious voice to be heard, And show the descent of His arm, With the indignation of His anger And the flame of a devouring fire, With scattering, tempest, and hailstones.
31 For through the voice of the LORD Assyria will be beaten down, As He strikes with the rod.
32 And in every place where the staff of punishment passes, Which the LORD lays on him, It will be with tambourines and harps; And in battles of brandishing He will fight with it.
33 For Tophet was established of old, Yes, for the king it is prepared. He has made it deep and large; Its pyre is fire with much wood; The breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, Kindles it. Isaiah 30:19-33

Even though God's chosen people, the children of Israel, are going into captivity, God shows us in these verses what He is doing:

• Gracious vs. 19
• Hears vs. 19
• Gives bread of adversity vs. 20
• Leads vs. 21
• Gives rain vs. 23
• Binds up the bruise vs. 26
• Heals vs. 26

God brings us through a cycle so we will praise Him for the work He is doing.

Adversity -> I hear/seek God -> Repentance -> Praise