Grace Thoughts

Tim Kelley: This is his prayer. I have sought to use you as a willing servant. This is him talking to God. I have sought to use you, Lord, as a willing servant to help me in my self-appointed and chosen work. I shall do so no more. Just now, I give you this body of mine from my head to my feet. I give it to you. I give you my hands, my limbs, my eyes, my lips, my brain, and all that I am within and without. I hand over to you and to you and for you to live in it the life that you please.

You may send this body to Africa—Africa, that's how you say it—or lay it on a bed with cancer. You may blind the eyes or send me with your message to Tibet. You may take this body to the Eskimos or send it to the hospital with pneumonia. It is your body from this moment on. Help yourself to it. Thank you, my Lord, for taking me. We now belong to each other. What a great prayer that is.

Now, that's going to be different for all people. I look at that as a pretty bold prayer. Send me to the Eskimos, send me to Tibet. What if you can't go? What if you're sick and you're in bed? What if life doesn't let you do that because of the circumstances of life? Does that mean the lordship of Christ is out of the question for you? Does that mean that somehow you can't get the same rewards as maybe a preacher of the Gospel or a missionary? Obviously, the answer to that is no.

I used the illustration in the first service; I mentioned dear Janie Gowerworthy who went home to be with the Lord a few years ago. Here was a dear woman that knew ministry, knew people, knew the Bible, could sing, and play instruments. She was part of worship teams, and then that awful disease of diabetes ebbed her life away and put her in bed. She had a hard time getting into fellowship and even a hard time getting out of bed. Was her life less valuable than mine or Billy Graham's? No.

Will she hear anything less than, "Well done, thy good and faithful servant"? Will she get rewards like those who preach the Gospel and evangelize? Yes, she will. This is nothing about what we do and how we perform. This is all about what's happening right in here, where our hearts are at and what we're willing to do and where we would go if the Lord opens up a door. It's where we'd step if God asked us to step.

Sometimes He may say to you, "Will you take a step into sickness for me? Will you take a step into illness, into inactivity? Will you take a step back off what you think are the front lines, which really aren't the front lines? Go back to what you think are the back lines, but no, you're really on the front lines now. Will you believe in my goodness and my grace and my mercy and my love even though you can't perform for it? Will you think that I'm still for you and with you and behind you even though you can't move physically, spiritually, or emotionally?"

See, that's the lordship of Christ in the purity of God's Gospel of grace. Third point: singular devotion. A slave's life was simple; they only had one primary concern, and that was the master and how to please him. I told that to my wife. "Honey, the only concern you have..." That didn't work out well. Don't try that at home, guys. I just want to tell you, I tried it first and it doesn't work out well.

I'm kidding. If they didn't know what to do, a good slave was to find ways to please the master. In other words, the slave wasn't going to say, "Well, you didn't tell me what to do, so I'm just going to take the rest of the day off and play cribbage." They didn't do that. A good slave was expected to serve the master whether he knew what to do or not. He was expected to know the master, know his desires, know his will, and know what was important to him. He wouldn't have to get constant direction; he'd be able to act on the master's behalf all by himself.

It's as simple as this: in Mark 12:30, Jesus is talking and says, "And you shall love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." That's what it meant to be a slave. First Thessalonians 4:1 says, "Finally, my brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that you see from us how you ought to walk, how you ought to manage your lives, and to please God just as you are doing, that you do so more and more."

Romans 12:1 says, "Brothers and sisters, you know this verse, in view of all you have shared about God's compassion, I encourage you to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, dedicated to God and pleasing to him. This kind of worship is appropriate for you." So, singular devotion. Next is total dependence. This is good. A biblical slave didn't have to worry about where they're going to sleep or eat; the master took care of that.

Matthew chapter 6 is in great view here. "Take no thought for what you shall eat or drink." Four times in that passage, it says "take no thought." The concern was simply to serve the master. He will worry about where I sleep; he'll worry about what I eat. He just wants me to worry about him, to serve him. He'll take care of all those logistical things that we need to do that for him.

Philippians 4:19: "And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus." And second Corinthians 9:8: "And God will generously provide all you need; then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others." I like to call this having a single eye in serving God. In other words, not worrying about the peripheral distractions of life.

I was sharing in the first service, when you're here on a stage like me, standing up here looking out over here and seeing you guys, if somebody fiddles over here or their cellphone goes off, the whole church just looks. They all look. When I was in Bible college, my first semester in Bible college, it was at the small Old Barbara Stephens Memorial Chapel. It had these wood wings that went out on the side. I came up there with some pretty crazy music.

Music that wasn't really acceptable in the climate that I was now part of. I didn't really know those things. I was very untaught, so I had my music tapes and I decided I'm going to tape over these and put the sermons on these tapes. I'm going to make a statement to me and God. I'm going to take these cassette tapes of mine, put them in my tape recorder, and when the preacher stands up to preach, I'm going to hit record and record over these old music tapes and put the preaching of the Gospel on there.

That's what I was going to do. Well, I forgot to hit record. The whole church was full of people; it was packed. I hit record and it was Stevie Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle." Great lead-in to that song. Not that I like it anymore, but a great lead-in to that song. I just watched everyone on the stage and the whole audience—the whole church, everyone at the Bible college—just staring right at me.

That's what I'm talking about: the flashbulbs. Christ wants a concentrated, single-eye focus as a slave. The world is always flashing lightbulbs at us, trying to distract us and make us look over here: marriage, family, kids, business, whatever it is. Distractions, distractions, distractions. I understand some distractions are life-altering; they're not distractions. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the little stuff, not the game-changing stuff, just to get our focus off so all of a sudden our dependence may go someplace else.

Last point: personal accountability. This is where I really want you to take home with you these next 1.25 points. At the end of the day, the only thing that mattered for the slave was the master's personal evaluation. When the sun went down and he stood before his master, his owner, it was how he evaluated his day's work which mattered to him. On many occasions, there was a reward system for the slave.

Anything from more food, better accommodations, or sometimes freedom in some cases, depending on the master. They were always in front of the slaves. If you do this, you'll reward this. If you get this, you'll get that. Well, we know in second Corinthians chapter 5 and first Corinthians chapter 3, it says this in second Corinthians 5:10, "For we must all stand before the Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body."

I'll get back to that in a moment. In Matthew 25:21, "And the Lord said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful slave,'" literal translation. "You were faithful over a few things; I will set you over many. Enter into the joy of the Lord." This is what we call the Bema Seat judgment. It's not a judgment of eternal destiny; it's a judgment of eternal quality.

It's not where you'll spend eternity because that's already been settled if you're at this judgment. Your eternal destiny has already been settled by the blood of Christ; you're going to heaven and you'll be part of the heavenly family. But the Bema Seat judgment—and the word Bema is a word for judgment seat where the person would give out the awards for an athletic contest—this is when we stand before God and He looks at our life.

He looks at my life and how I did with the opportunity given to me. I may be Janie in bed, I may be Tim preaching the Gospel, but how did I do with the opportunity given to me? Was my heart after God? Did I care what my master cared about? Were His values my values? His priorities my priorities? If that's the case, He says, "Well done, thy good and faithful servant."

If you can take that home with you, it's not what's happening here; it's what's happening between you and Him. We do everything to the audience of one. I lived years looking for man's approval and acceptance, and we all do too, don't we? But after a while, sometimes the Lord lets those things be taken away and you're left with the audience of one. When you deal with your money, do it with an audience of one.

When you're a husband, be a husband to an audience of one. Be a wife, a father, a friend, a mentor to the audience of one. When you're alone and there's no one there to witness anything you're doing, understand you're the audience of one. My friends, when you live that way and you get before that judgment seat we just saw in second Corinthians 5:10, first of all, that takes the pressure off.

Life becomes really easy then. Making decisions becomes really easy then. Relationships become really easy then because I'm not doing them to the audience of the horizontal; I'm doing them to the audience of one. I'm loving my wife to the audience of one. I'm forgiving my husband to the audience of one. I'm giving my finances to the audience of one. I'm not trying to gain man's approval or man's recognition; I'm just living under the eyes of one person: Jesus Christ.

Life becomes very simple, very fruitful, and very joyful. Simple—it gets less confused because it's just me and Jesus. Listen, I'll close with this thought: it is only in being a slave of Christ that we find our greatest purpose in life. We're rigged that way. We're wired that way. God made us that way. He's brought this up on this Wednesday night. When you find God's great purpose for your life, you've found life as it was intended to be lived.

We're designed for Him, and our ultimate life is found in our closeness to Him, not in attaining anything this world has to offer. I know what the purpose for my life is, but you have to figure out what the purpose for your life is. Find out what God's purpose is and abide there, whatever that is. That could be raising your family and just being the best wife or parent you can be. That's great; that's wonderful.

Just find God's purpose—sometimes He'll find you—and rest. And rest. There is no place to climb. There is nothing greater in the kingdom of God than what God has called you to do. Remember that. Whether it's preaching the Gospel or praying for a missionary in Pakistan, whether it's giving your financial resources because you can, or whether it's just filling your seat every week and being faithful, faithful, faithful, and volunteering for Kids Connection.

Volunteering for Kids Connection. Yeah, maybe volunteering for Kids Connection. Working with the kids, extra rewards. You get double Bema Seat wreath awards, extra heaven street, extra gold in your street, and cul-de-sac heaven—everything for Kids Connection. It doesn't matter, my friends. It's you as a slave fulfilling the purpose that your master has asked of you in life. That's where you'll find the greatest meaning for your life.