Faithful servant of God

Pastor Mike will be speaking on “Faithful servant of God” He will be in Joshua 24:15

If you’re making great and godly and honorable choices today, I won’t be shocked that God’s hands on you and using you in great ways to touch many lives. So I challenge every father and I challenge every person here this morning to make the choice that Joshua made as he stood before his people.

And he said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Happy Father’s Day. This is Pastor Mike Sanders with hope worth having today. And we want to congratulate. We want to certainly thank all the fathers.

I don’t think there’s anything that is more important right now in the family than fathers standing up, speaking up and stepping up and being the dad that God has called them to be. Many of the problems in our nation are the result of dads stepping out and stepping down from their role and their responsibilities.

You know, as a pastor, I do a lot of counseling, just counseling a young man the other day. And what has dad done? Dad has abandoned the family. He has left the family. This has been such a difficult thing on this young man who’s only a teenager.

And dad decided to not be there. But I want to thank the dads that are there. You’re showing up every day. You’re being that father. You’re helping guide your children. You’re encouraging them. You’re praying with them.

You’re directing them. You’re giving them that good advice. And I just want to thank you dads for stepping up in a powerful way. Today, we’re going to be in Joshua 24, verse 15. And we’re going to learn about the faithful servant of God.

And that’s what dads really need to be. They need to be a faithful servant of God. And whether you’re a dad, a mom, or any other role in life. It’s important that all of us be faithful servants for the Lord So let’s get into our study in the book of Joshua and learn what it means to be a faithful servant So first of all, what does it mean to be a servant of God a faithful servant of God number one the faithful Servant assumes their duties.

They assume their duties the faithful Servant of God is aware that they have a duty to their creator that they have a duty to their God you note that Joshua says in verse 15 as for me in my house We will serve who the Lord we will serve God Almighty we will serve Jehovah we will serve our creator Joshua is determined to understand that he will fulfill his duty to his Creator when Jesus Christ was asked what is the bottom line of the Bible,

he responded with these beautiful words, that thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. This is the first and the great commandment. This is our responsibility.

This is the foundation of our life. This is the center of our life. You can never faithfully serve God if you do not love God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind. You can never have the courage to stand up when others are going a different direction and you can never have the boldness to proclaim that your house and your family and yourself will serve the Lord Jesus Christ unless you truly love God.

You see, my friends, I want you to understand something, that the assurance of our salvation is not rooted in whether we prayed a prayer or not. It is not rooted in whether we signed a decision card or not.

It is rooted in the change that is in our life. If you want to know that you’re truly a child of God, one of the things that will be manifested is do you have a love for God? Do you have an incredible love for God that is passionate towards Him?

You say, Mike, I disagree with you. Wonderful. It’s America. You have the freedom to be wrong. Isn’t that great? But here’s the problem, that when we go back to the Bible in 1 John and we studied 1 John, which is all about this, that we may know that we have eternal life.

John writes his passage under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God that we might know that we have eternal life, that we might know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and as He breaks it down, one of the things He helps us understand is that the assurance of our salvation The assurance of our salvation is manifested by who we love.

John tells us not to love the world, neither the things that are in the world, but rather to love God, to love our creator, to love him with all of our heart. As a matter of fact, not only does John tell us to love God, but he tells us to love people.

And that’s what Jesus taught us, that we’re to love God and to love people. And that if we love people, if we love the brethren, we know that we have passed from death unto life. Not physical death, but spiritual death.

We know that we have passed from death unto life, from spiritual death unto spiritual life. We know that we are truly born again believers if we have a love for the brethren. The evidence that your faith is real is that you must check your heart and you must see in your heart, is there a true love for God?

And is there a true love for God? for people. The greatest commandment for a servant to follow is to love God with all of his being. With every ounce, Jesus says this in Matthew 6, 24, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and he will despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon. You and I are called to make a choice today. Will we love God? Will we serve God? Will he be number one in our life? Or will we just kind of mess around and just kind of play around with this faith thing and this religion thing and this church thing and just kind of do enough that gives us enough to think in our mind that we’re truly children of God and that we’re going to go to heaven.

But the truth is, friends, we need to understand that God is saying you can’t serve two masters. You can’t be divided in your loyalty and allegiance. It’s either all God or it’s not. You can’t straddle the fence with Jesus Christ.

He is calling us to be loyal to him and to love him with all of our hearts, to abandon the things of this world and the ambitions that we have and to recognize that we have a duty to love our Creator.

But God not only calls us to fulfill our duties by loving our God but also to love our spouse. The faithful Father and the faithful servant fulfills their duty to love their spouse, their companion that God has blessed them with.

It is the priority of every believer to love Jesus Christ but it is also the priority to love their spouse. The Bible says in Ephesians 5 .25, husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.

Think about that. that my priority in life is to love God and then it is to love my wife, it is to love my spouse. This is the foundation of helping me to be a faithful servant of God. If I get this out of order then it will not properly flow.

Someone says, how is it that I could love God more than my spouse? How is it that I could love God more than my family? Because I don’t want my family to feel second. I don’t want my family to feel neglected.

Listen, when you love God supremely, you will love your family effectively. And what I mean by this is that you cannot love your family as you ought until you love God fully in your heart. And when you fully love God in your heart and you’re fully surrendered to Him and He is in charge of your life and you have given your life fully and freely to Him.

100% to God, then friends, you’re gonna be a great father, you’re gonna be a great servant of God, you’re gonna be a person who truly loves their family and you’re gonna show it in so many great ways because the father is going to lead you and God is gonna show you how you can love them.

The Bible says husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. How did Christ love the church? First, he loved the church sacrificially. He gave, he gave himself for it.

We are called to sacrificially love our family. We are called to sacrificially love our spouse and that means we have to give up some things and we may have to step away. Things are gonna happen, right?

Guess what, you don’t win every game. Sometimes you go up to bat and you strike out. Sometimes you go to swing or kick the soccer ball and you miss it all together and you fall on your gluteus maxis muscle, amen?

It happens but what do you do? You get back up, you keep trying, you keep giving effort. That’s what I’m trying to say, dads, when you show your children your failures and you confess that to them and you help them understand how do we respond to failure, that is huge in their life.

That’s a value that they’re gonna carry all the way into their life and I don’t want you to forget that. A faithful servant assumes their duties to their God, to their family. Number two, a faithful servant avoids hidden dangers in their life.

There are many dangers in our life and I wanted to share a few of them with you so that we can be on the alert. The Bible tells us that we’re to be alert, that we’re to be watchful. I’m afraid that too many Christians are very naive and gullible and they’re not alert to the traps and the…

the trippings of the devil in their life. And as a result, they find themselves in messes because they find themselves becoming a stumbling block to others and stumbling themselves in their walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.

A faithful servant avoids hidden dangers in their hearts. Number one, selfishness is a hidden danger. It is a danger. Watch out for it. It creeps up in our life. Selfishness is always demanding attention in the throne of our heart.

Selfishness is always trying to assume the greatness within our hearts. Jesus said, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Jesus calls us to deny self.

A servant of God is gonna have to… be willing to put aside self is going to have to be willing to deny self and take up the cross and follow Jesus. How important it is that you and I do not become absorbed with self.

The world is constantly telling you it’s all about you. It’s all about you. Take care of yourself. It’s all about you. But the truth is, friends, it’s all about Jesus. I want you to understand something that in this journey of faith that God calls us to walk, that sometimes He calls us to walk down some difficult paths, some different and unique paths, maybe not what we anticipated or even expected for our life.

But Jesus says, I want you to deny self and I want you to follow my will for your life. I want you to follow the path. Joshua was such a man who was willing to set aside what he wanted. He was a servant.

He was a servant for many years and he was a person who worked side by side with Moses. There were many times that Joshua could have said, Moses, step aside. Let me run this place. Let me run the show.

But you know what? Time after time, Joshua submitted himself to his leader, submitted himself to the will of God. Many times Joshua could have said, look, I’m younger. I’m better. I got new ideas. I can bring some new energy to the organization.

I can help it out. But he never did that. He never supplanted his role or his responsibility. He always was a man who was seeking to honor God in his life. I want you to be careful. There are roles that we have and responsibilities that we have in our life.

And sometimes pride can get a hold of us. And pride can say, I want this and I want that. And I want to push this person out of the way. And I and I want to take on that job, and I want to be the person in charge, and I want to be the person that makes all the decisions around here, listen to me, friends.

God puts His servants where He wants them. And God puts them to maximize the way He designed them. You gotta understand that. And you gotta believe that God calls people to positions and roles and responsibilities.

And when you try to go against that, that you’re really not fighting the leader or the person that God has called you to help, but you’re fighting the will of God Almighty. Selfishness, I want to do it my way.

I want it now. You know what? Selfishness men can really get a hold of our hearts. And then rather than being sensitive and understanding and gentle to our family and trying to be alert to their needs, we’re just focused on self.

We’re just focused on what we want. I want to challenge you guys today to be focused on Christ and ask the Lord to give you a sensitive heart that’s not always thinking about what I want, what I need, what I demand right now in my life, but rather knowing that as I lead my family, I want to understand what their needs are, and yes it might go against self, and I may actually have to get involved and help out and do something and be a part of their lives,

but that’s okay because God wants to use me. I’m thinking about fathers who try to force something upon their children or push their children in a certain direction that is not the way they were designed.

The Bible says train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. The idea is this, train up a child in the way he was designed by God, the way he was created by God.

Some of you, your children are musical and you’re trying to make them into athletes and it’s not working out well, and everybody around you knows it except you, and some of you need to realize that God has designed your child in a special way as given that child unique abilities and giftedness, and what you need to do as a father is be more sensitive to that and you’re not looking for the next Michael Jordan or the next Babe Ruth.

You need to understand that you are looking for God’s will to be done in that child’s life and that you want to direct them and train them towards their giftedness and their abilities and their heart and how God has designed them that they might bring about the most glory for Jesus Christ.

The second danger is what I call slackness. Believe it or not, being slack. is a danger in our life. Here’s what I mean. Not giving our best. Be careful, a servant of God always gives their best. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 9 -10 that whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, meaning your best.

Give everything, give everything you have to God. They have an attitude, a slackness attitude is that we’re gonna try to cut corners. We’re gonna try to find the easy route to handle this. We’re gonna find the least expensive way to do this because we don’t want to give our best.

God deserves our best, doesn’t he? You know why? Because God gave his best. God gave his best for you. He gave his life, he gave his son, his son gave his life for us so that we might have eternal life.

Jesus didn’t come and be a slacker on this earth, but rather he was a person who was committed to the excellency of God. This is the way our hearts should be. We are committed to the excellency of God.

People get upset at Pastor Mike, because I have a problem, I walk around, I see lights off, I see things not fixed, and they get upset with Pastor Mike, because you know why, everything, he’s always finding something.

He’s always finding something that needs to be fixed. He’s always finding something, but you know that’s the way I am. I see it because I want this place to be the best for Jesus Christ. When people come, I want them to see the love of God, and I want them to see the excellency of Christ, and I want them to be drawn to Jesus Christ.

And my wife says, well Mike, if you’re like that at home, why aren’t you, or if you’re like that at church, why aren’t you like that at home? Well, I did tell her the other day, there was a light out.

She needed to get that changed. I’m just kidding, I’m just kidding. Another danger is slothfulness. That’s laziness. You see the difference between slackness and slothfulness is this, slackness has to do with my attitude and my commitment to excellence.

Laziness has to do with my actions, neglecting my responsibilities, neglecting what I’m supposed to do, knowing that I am called to do something, and yet I don’t do it. I love the statement that I read recently, and I forget the individual’s name, but he was an admiral in the military, and he said if he was speaking at a graduation, and he told the young people, if you wanna change the world, why don’t you start by making your bed,

amen? You know why we taught our children to make their bed? Because we wanted them to not be lazy. We wanted them to commit to excellence. We wanted them to do their best for God. I wanna challenge you, dads, don’t get lazy.

Don’t kind of just go into cruise control in your family. Don’t go into cruise control in your family. spiritual life and in your relationship with your wife and your children, but make sure that you stay active for the Lord Jesus Christ and that you stay involved and that you stay connected and don’t become lazy in your responsibilities.

Another word, another danger is what I call severity. That is the danger of provoking our children to wrath or the danger of not of living our lives in such a way that we are going to the extremes of life and we are creating great severe harm in the hearts of people and children and our family.

We got to watch our tongues. We got to watch our tempers guys. We got to be alert to these things in our lives and realize that the Spirit of God wants us to grow in these matters, and He wants us to become stronger in these areas and more disciplined in these areas so that we can honor Christ.

My third and final point is that the faithful servant anticipates honorable dividends. I wanna say thank you to all the dads who are being what they should be. I wanna thank every father who has invested into their children, who has invested into their spouse.

I wanna thank you dads for being faithful servants in your community and in your church, being faithful servants everywhere you go, standing up, you’re loyal to Jesus. You love the Lord God with all your heart.

We didn’t come here to beat you up today. I just want you to anticipate and know that God is going to reward you for your faithfulness. And I think that as you and I are faithful, as we continue to be faithful to God, that God will bless us with a spirit of contentment, that He will help us to see that as we have done everything that we can, we are pleasing Him and that He grants us that peace of contentment in our hearts,

that we are not living in turmoil, but rather we are contented with what the Lord has provided us. The honorable dividend of being faithful to God is God gives you contentment in your heart. That’s where Joshua was.

He was a contented servant. He came to this end of his life, finishing his life strong for God. He was not someone who steered off the path. He was not someone who tremendously harmed the cause of God Almighty, but rather he stayed faithful and God blessed him with contentment.

And in chapter 23 and chapter 24, you see contentment in his life. You see that he is very resolute, very committed to the cause of God. And he says, as far as me and my house. we’re serving God. You all do what you want, but for me this is what we’re doing.

He was not living his life to keep everybody happy. He was not living his life trying to make sure that people liked him, but he was very content with his circumstances. He was content with his life.

He did not come to this end of his life bitter, angry at his circumstances, upset about what the fact that he was getting older, but rather he was very content in his heart that God had blessed him and enabled him to be a strong and faithful servant of God, and he stood before the leaders, and he stood before his people, and he said to them, as far as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

I think an honorable dividend for every faithful servant is commendation. That is that God is going to commend us for our faithfulness. How many of us we are so looking forward to hear. from Jesus Christ, well done, thou good and faithful servant.

That’s what God is going to say to us. And many of you, I want you to know, that’s what waits for you, that as you are faithfully serving God, and you are effectively leading your family, and you are standing up for Christ in a culture that has become pluralistic, in a culture that does not like the fact that we say Jesus is the only way to heaven.

And it’s gonna become more difficult for us to stand up for Christ. But I want you to know, for all of you that are doing a great job, and you are serving Christ, and you’re here, and you’re finding your place in the church, and you’re getting involved, and you’re serving God in different ways.

Some of you behind the scenes, some of you out in front, some of you in the classroom, some of you in large groups, whatever it is, I want you to know that one day, God is gonna commend you, and he is gonna say, well done, thou good and faithful servant.

The Bible says this, blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. You see, the day’s coming, when you’re gonna say, you know what, I’m so thankful that I was faithful to God.

I’m so thankful that I was a faithful servant. There are many people who live with regrets, and there are many people who say, I wish I’d have done this, or I wish I would have done that, or I wish I’d avoided that danger in my life.

And they struggle in their hearts. But I wanna say to every one of you that God has a reward for you. You have been faithful to him. Has your life been perfect? No. Are there things that you wish would have turned out differently?

Certainly. But I want you to know that God is going to bless you. And dads, I want to say thank you. Thank you for loving that child. And thank you for stepping up in that home. And thank you for being a part.

And know this, that your efforts are not in vain. And all that you’re doing for the Lord Jesus Christ, he not only is blessing, but he will one day commend you. And he will commend you for your faith.

He will commend you for your faith even as you have walked through the fire. I would encourage you to read First Peter chapter one, because that’s exactly what Peter tells us in the latter verses 10, 11 and 12, that one day God, Jesus Christ will commend us because we’ve walked through the fire.

And he will commend us because we didn’t give up and we didn’t quit and we stay close to him. Listen to me as we close. Every one of us, every one of us needs to understand. that our life is a composite of the choices we make.

And where your life is going and what your life will be are based upon the choices you are making today. And if you make bad choices today, I won’t be shocked that five years your life is a mess. But if you’re making great and godly and honorable choices today, I won’t be shocked that God’s hands on you and using you in great ways to touch many lives.

So I challenge every father and I challenge every person here this morning to make the choice that Joshua made as he stood before his people. And he said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Well, being a faithful servant certainly reminds us that we must declare as Joshua did, as far as me and my house, we’re gonna serve the Lord. And how wonderful it would be if more homes would make that declaration.

And whether you are a dad or maybe you didn’t have a dad or you have a dad, whatever the situation means, the most important thing is this, that you be dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know that you understand that God has a perfect plan and that even in our adversities and even in our trials that God is working everything out together for our good and his glory, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

And so today, let’s commit our hearts to be these faithful servants and what our nation needs is a great spiritual awakening. And that spiritual awakening will begin within our homes as we seek God and put him first in our life.

How essential Jesus said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. You see, we’re looking for this, we’re looking for that, but what we really need to do is we need to seek God first in our life.

And when we come to that point, God takes care of the rest. But so often we get our priorities out of whack. I hope on this Father’s Day that we will all strive to put Him first in our life. I want to remind you that we have a newsletter that we put out on a regular basis.

We’d love for you to sign up for our newsletter, and you can go to our website. You can sign up for our newsletter. Our past newsletters are available for you to read through, and you can take some time.

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And so maybe you can tell a friend or you can share these opportunities for people to hear God’s word. We want to remind you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.