A Word about Lip Service

Today, I want us to consider the cost of providing lip service to our Heavenly Father.  Let’s begin by reading Matthew 21:23-32.

When He entered the temple complex, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to Him as He was teaching and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? Who gave You this authority?” Jesus answered them, “I will also ask you one question, and if you answer it for Me, then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Where did John’s baptism come from? From heaven or from men?” They began to argue among themselves, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’  But if we say, ‘From men,’ we’re afraid of the crowd, because everyone thought John was a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” And He said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.  But what do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘My son, go, work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I don’t want to!’ Yet later he changed his mind and went. Then the man went to the other and said the same thing. ‘I will, sir,’ he answered. But he didn’t go. “Which of the two did his father’s will?” “The first,” they said. Jesus said to them, “I assure you: Tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you! For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn’t believe him. Tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him, but you, when you saw it, didn’t even change your minds then and believe him.

This parable of Jesus reminds me of a story I heard that dates back to the days of the British Empire in India. Three very proper, stiff-upper-lip British Army officers stationed there had hired a local man to take care of their quarters and cook their meals. They were very hard to please and they constantly corrected him, but he'd just smile and bow and carry on. They told him off every day, yet he'd just smile and nod. They finally got tired of him and let him go. "We won't be telling you off anymore," they said.  He replied, "And I will not be spitting in your soup anymore either." 

\o we smile at God, and yet spit in His soup?  Jesus told a parable about such behavior in Mattew 21.  Let us look at it today.

First, Let's See Lip Service:

The parable Jesus told involved a man asking his sons to go work in their vineyard. It was a common request, and a reasonable one. Farmers always need more hands to work their fields, and they often assign chores to their children. This is why agrarian societies have large birthrate to have workers.

One son said, “Yes, I’ll go.” But he didn’t go. He lied and he reneged, and he was in rebellion.  He could not be honest with his father, so he deceived him. Maybe he had decided it was “easier to ask forgiveness than it is to ask permission.”

esus said that the Jewish religious leaders of that day were like this son. They gave lip service, but no real service. They were more interested in their own will than God's. In other places in the Scriptures, Jesus compares them to whitewashed graves: They looked good outwardly, but they were corrupt inwardly. 

They hid their nature from others, but that did nothing to change it, like the son who was punished with a time-out because of his behavior who said, “I'm sitting down, but I'm standing up inside.” Or, like the ex-hippie who had become a business executive wearing a suit and tie who said, “I'm still wearing leather sandals and long hair on the inside.”

Jesus condemned these religious leaders for their lip service to God.

Next, Let's See Reluctant Service:

The other son’s words and actions were 180 degrees out of phase with his brother’s. When he was asked to go work in the vineyard, he was honest with this father, and told him, “No!” He didn’t mince his words, he didn’t hem and haw, he didn’t beat around the bush. He just said, “I’m not gonna do it.”

There is something to be said for the honest sinner. They know that they are doing wrong, and they own up to it. Their honesty doesn’t save them from punishment, however. 

Gary Plauche’ was the father of a son who had been kidnapped and abused by Jeffery Doucet. Police officers arrested Doucet in California and flew with him back to Baton Rouge. LA to stand trial, but that never happened. At 9:30pm on March 16, 1984, Gary was at the airport pretending to use a payphone, but as the Doucet and his police escort passed behind him, he turned and shot Doucet in the head, killing him. Plauche’ replaced the telephone receiver as the police subdued him, asking him, "Gary, why? Why, Gary?" Gary was charged with second-degree murder but agreed to a plea-bargain for a lesser sentence. At age 67, Plauché gave an interview where he stated that he did not regret killing Doucet and would do so again.

What saves the honest sinner is what saves us all: repentance. The son initially defied his father, but then he repented and obeyed him. This meant that he ultimately fulfilled his father’s wishes, unlike his brother who only gave lip service to their father.

Jesus said the tax collectors and harlots who had actually listened to John were the true servants of the father. This was both a bold and an accusatory statement because the tax collectors and harlots were outcasts of society. The tax collectors were traitors and thieves. The harlots were sexually defiled in what was officially a very prudish society (though they had to get their customers from somewhere didn’t they?). The key was that when they repented, they did the will of God more than the hypocritical religious leaders of Israel.

Jesus commended these outcasts of society for their repentant service to God. For a better model of servanthood, let’s read Luke 17:5-10.

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,” the Lord said, “you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. “Which one of you having a slave tending sheep or plowing will say to him when he comes in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? Instead, will he not tell him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat, get ready and serve me while I eat and drink; later you can eat and drink’ Does he thank that slave because he did what was commanded? In the same way, when you have done all that you were commanded, you should say, ‘We are good-for-nothing slaves; we’ve only done our duty.’”

Now, Let's See Full Service:

For most of us, a full-service gas station is a distant, or probably non-existent memory. Except for New Jersey, in every other state of the union, people pump their own gas, unless they physically can’t. If that is the case they can ask for help, but there once was a time when a motorist would drive over a pneumatic hose as they approached the gas pumps. This would ring a bell, and an attendant would come out to your car. Attendants would not only fill your gas tank as you sat in the car, but they usually would also check the oil and clean the windshield as well. Many gas stations would replace worn-out windshield wipers and perform other minor repairs as well. 

The days of full-service gas stations are long gone, but if Jesus had come to earth in the mid-20th Century, he might have used them as the illustration of how we should serve God. Instead, He used the case of a man who had a slave, which was common in those days. It was not right or just, but it was common. What was uncommon in this situation was that this slave was expected to work in the field as well as in the home. Usually, those tasks were separate and done by different individuals, but in this case, this man needed a full-service slave; one who did what his master wanted, when and where his master wanted.

What Jesus wanted to emphasize here is that, when you serve someone, you don’t get to pick and choose when and what and where and how you serve them. That is their prerogative, not yours. In fact, Jesus even complimented a Roman centurion who understood this principle far better than the Jewish religious leaders did. Matthew 8:5-13 says,

When He entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible agony!” “I will come and heal him,” He told him.  “Lord,” the centurion replied, “I am not worthy to have You come under my roof. But only say the word, and my servant will be cured. For I too am a man under authority, having soldiers under my command. I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” Hearing this, Jesus was amazed and said to those following Him, “I assure you: I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith! I tell you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Then Jesus told the centurion, “Go. As you have believed, let it be done for you.” And his servant was cured that very moment.

Jesus commended the Centurion for his faith but also for the fact that he knew he was a man under authority. What about us?

 Finally, Let's See Our Service:

The best thing about our country is our concept of individual liberty. This provides us the kinds of freedom that the people in most other countries of the world only dream about. At the same time, our concept of individual liberty is also one of our most troublesome aspects. Some people forget that just because they can do something doesn’t mean that they should do it. We all like to believe that we are our own master and that we are beholden to no one else. Our Lord would beg to differ.

The parable that Jesus taught about the full-service slave, and the way He responded to the faith of the Centurion demonstrates that Jesus recognized that we all serve some master or another. We might serve the master of debt, or the master of our stomachs, or the master of our lusts, or the master of our leisure. God forbid, but some people are serving the master of evil, and they are working hard at it.

We all have a master, but there is only one benevolent master who blesses us with an abundant life in the here and now and in the hereafter. This is what Paul said about that situation in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20,

Don’t you know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.

We also should remember what Paul taught the church at Rome about this in Romans 12:1-3, 

Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one.

Finally, let’s remember how important obedience is to God. Early in King Saul’s reign, he began to do things his way instead of God’s way, and he was confronted in his sin by the prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel 15:22-23:

Then Samuel said: Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifice as much as in obeying the Lord? Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and defiance is like wickedness and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has rejected you as king.

And we must not forget what Jesus said in John 14:15-18:

If you love Me, you will keep My commands. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive Him because it doesn’t see Him or know Him. But you do know Him, because He remains with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.

You see, our God is a Full-Service God. Not only does He save us from our sin and adopt us as His children, but He also even helps us to do the right thing. In fact, Romans 8 :26 tells us that even when we don’t k now how to pray, the Holy Spirit prays for us! The key to accessing that help, from Jesus’s own mouth, however, is an attitude of obedience.

A good illustration of this took place at the auto repair shop that I used for the twelve years we lived in Covington County, AL. When I began trading with this shop, I dealt with the father of the family. Then, about six or seven years later, his son-in-law began managing the store. The father was still there in the back office, but he only came out to shake hands and chat. The son-in-law was in charge of the day-to-day operations. He was not as affable as his father-in-law, but he was honest and efficient, he got me back on the road, and he always treated me right. It was just recently announced that the father had officially transferred the business to his daughter and son-in-law. The son-in-law had worked diligently for six or seven years, and now he was the owner. We will never own the Kingdom of God, but if we diligently serve Him, we will share in His glory!

Jesus commends us to the Holy Spirit, who helps us be the servants of God in ways we cannot be in our own strength.

 Conclusion:

As the adopted children of God, He expects us to obey Him. He has called for us to go out into the fields which are white unto harvest and bring in a crop of disciples into His household. He is serious about this task, and He requires that we are obedient to Him.

Let me also remind us, that while God expects our obedience, He also cherishes us. He went more than the extra mile, and He paid the highest possible price, to adopt us as His children. He would never abuse us or ask us to do something that He would not help us do.

Finally, as His children we are His heirs. We are not hired hands being paid a wage. No! We will benefit from benefit from every increase in Kingdom of God our Father. Again, as Paul told the church at Rome,

The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—seeing that we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

Let us determine today to give more, and much, much more, than lip service to God our Father. He deserves it, and we need to do it!

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt