How Can A Servant Be Free?

How Can A Servant Be Free?

Pastor Terry Wilcox

To you I lift up my eyes,
    O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
Behold, as the eyes of servants
    look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maidservant
    to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
    till he has mercy upon us.

Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,
    for we have had more than enough of contempt.
Our soul has had more than enough
    of the scorn of those who are at ease,
    of the contempt of the proud.

Psalm 123

1. Service begins by to God. (Psalm 123:1)

God presents Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ as a .

If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.

John 13:14-15

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;

2 Corinthians 5:17-18

2. How do those who know their position pray? (Psalm 123:3)

Mercy and Grace are often used interchangeably, but they are different.

Grace is God giving us  when we deserve .

Mercy is not giving someone the punishment they deserve.

3. What to do when distressed by :

1. ourselves before God.

2. Pray – take the AND the persecutor to God in prayer.

God may very well be using the adversities in our lives to renew our prayer life and help us to be more dependent on Him.

3. Believe that God can and will act.

God rules the world by the prayers of His saints. Prayer is the power by which Satan is conquered. It is by prayer that the church on earth has at its disposal the powers of the heavenly world.

-Andrew Murray

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

1 Peter 5:6-7

4. They long to be .

Examine Psalm 123:3:

Have mercy on us,Lord, have mercy on us,
for we have endured no end of contempt.

-NIV

Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,
for we have had more than enough of contempt.

-ESV

Mercy, God, mercy!
We’ve been kicked around long enough,

-The Message

The Christian is a person who recognizes that our real problem is not in achieving freedom but in learning service under a better master.

-Eugene Peterson

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18

As servants of the Lord, God’s people everywhere have always been encouraged to work for the  of people.

In Psalm 123, the people on the road of faith moving toward God were praying to God for .

Scripture cautions us not to use our freedom as a license for .

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

Galatians 5:13-15

Submitting to God and becoming His servant is fleshed out in becoming the servant .

Amazingly, God has designed us to find freedom through !

Personal Notes: