Would You Like to be God’s Personal Slave? (1)
1. God loves you and created you to know Him personally as His slave. He has a wonderful plan for your life, for the benefits package for His slaves is amazing.
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, 3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, 5 who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.” (Psalm 103:2-5 ESV)
What prevents us from knowing God personally?
2. Everyone on the planet is a slave automatically. Every person alive has a master by default. It is either God or some idol (a person, thing, idea, or value that we treasure most highly or “can’t live without”).
“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ 33 They answered him, ‘We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?’ 34 Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:32-36 ESV [italics mine])
“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 despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Matthew 6:24 ESV)
"They [false teachers] promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved." (2 Peter 2:19 ESV [brackets mine])
How can we become freed from sin’s bondage so that we may become God’s slaves instead?
3. Jesus Christ is our perfect model for what it means to live as a child of God and also a slave of God. Through Him alone can we become children and slaves of God.
“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him...” (Hebrews 5:7-9 ESV)
"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:5-11 ESV)
"But Jesus called them to him and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles Lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'" (Matthew 20:25-28 ESV)
4. We must receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord (Master) in order to become God’s personal slaves. Then we can receive his benefits package that belongs as an inheritance to his children and slaves.
"For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." (Titus 3:3-7 ESV)
The following is a sample prayer to become God’s slave and a member of His honored family. God is more concerned with the attitude of your heart than with your actual words:
My Father,
I want to know You personally. I have sinned against heaven and against You by disobeying Your commandments and straying my own way. As a result I have lived as a slave to sin and unrighteousness, as a child of the devil who carried out his desires. I thank You for sending your Son, Jesus Christ, to the earth as Your servant who always did what pleases You.
You said that if I confess with my mouth “Jesus is Lord” and believe in my heart that You raised him from the dead, I will be saved. On the basis of Jesus’ death on the cross to pay the price for my rebellion against You, I thank You for forgiving my sins and thank you for reconciling our relationship. Take me in as your servant, that I may do Your will all the days of my life.
Thank You for delivering me from the dominion of darkness and transferring me into the kingdom of Your beloved Son, in whom I have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. As I commit to follow You with my whole life, to love you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, make me into the kind of slave You want me to be.
In Jesus name,
Amen.
C.f. Matthew 6:7-9; Luke 15:17-21; Isaiah 53:5-6; Romans 6:16ff; John 8:34-44; John 5:30; 6:38; 8:29; Hebrews 10:5-17; Romans 10:9-10; 5:6-11; Colossians 1:13-14; Matthew 22:37-40; John 14:12ff.
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.” (Colossians 2:6-10 ESV)
- Based on Would You Like to Know God Personally? A version of the Four Spiritual Laws, written by Bill Bright. For similarly formatted presentations on God’s plan of salvation, see the four spiritual laws for honor-shame contexts.
