Luke 14 (3)

Pray Psalm 72.12-14.
For He will deliver the needy when he cries,
The poor also, and him who has no helper.
He will spare the poor and needy,
And will save the souls of the needy.
He will redeem their life from oppression and violence;
And precious shall be their blood in His sight.

Sing Psalm 72.12-14.
(Martyrdom: Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed)
The Lord the needy rescues when he cries to Him for grace.
All they who suffer violence find mercy before His face.

Read Luke 14.1-14; meditate on verses 12-14.

Preparation
1. What should we not seek, according to Jesus?

2. To what “repayment” should we look when we show love to others?

Meditation
What should motivate us in showing love to and serving the people in our Personal Mission Field? That they will think and speak well of us? Do something nice in return? Disinterested love seeks nothing on the horizontal and everything on the vertical. That is, we love because God our Father has first loved us (1 Jn. 4.19), will always love us, and will lavish His love upon us forever and ever through Jesus Christ our Lord. We seek neither the plaudits nor pleasures of men. All the testimony and all the pleasure we want are in our God, and the more we give ourselves as He gave His Son for us – in self-denying love – the more we will know His pleasure now and be assured of it forever.

By all means, give dinners, send encouraging cards and emails, speak kindly to strangers, thank those who do you even the most quotidian service, share a smile and a word of encouragement, and do all things for the glory of God. But do not seek your satisfaction for so doing anywhere other than in the pleasure of God. As we were reminded yesterday, the Lord sees us always, and He knows our hearts and all our desires (Prov. 5.21; Ps. 34.15). If we delight ourselves in the Lord, making Him the reward we seek in all things, He will give us the desires of our heart (Ps. 37.4).

Which is just to say, He will repay us with more of Himself and His holy Presence and pleasures (Ps. 16.8, 11).

So we must, give, serve, care, and love. Seek out those whom others might consider least deserving of your love and offer it to them. But keep your eyes on Jesus as you do, and let the glory that emanates from His face and the thrill of His pleasure be all the repayment you require (2 Cor. 4.6).

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
Reagan, our thirteen-year-old granddaughter, who is on a mission trip to help a disadvantaged church repair its building and minister to its people while doing the work, just sent this text: “Thank you for praying for me. I’m having a great time! I learned how to scrape paint off a window, caulk a window with a caulking gun, and I learned how to coat glass in sticky white stuff. It’s the second day of work already and I’ve learned so many things!”

I see Jesus smiling at that girl! She is having a great time doing messy and hard work for other people. I am so pleased that she is learning how to be Jesus for other people.

And this is the lesson Jesus wanted to teach His listeners then and wants to teach us now. As we learned yesterday, this life is not about us. Shocker! It is all about Jesus and a lifestyle that honors and glorifies our risen Savior.

We are to give and live intentionally for Him and for others. We must do what we intend to do. We must do what He intends for us to do. Solomon wrote, “Whoever falsely boasts of giving is like clouds and wind without rain” (Prov. 25.14). And who wants to be that? Just a bunch of hot air.

God has planned things for us to do in our Personal Mission Field. Planned beforehand. Imagine that—even before we were born, He prepared good works for us to do. Paul said as much: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2.10).

Part of those good works, I’m pretty sure, include feeding our family and friends, enjoying fellowship with other believers, and enjoying being invited to their homes as well. Jesus contrasted loving Him supremely with “hating” family (Lk. 14.26), He did not mean that we should hate them, but that we should love Him most of all. The same with showing love and feeding people; but our focus should be service to God and serving other people who have dire needs—physical, material, and spiritual. We are called to try, as best we can, to meet some of the needs of some of the people, and to find our satisfaction in doing so from pleasing the Lord.

I want to see the same smile that Reagan is seeing on Jesus’ face.

“Well done, good and faithful servant…” (Matt. 25.21, 23).

For reflection
1. What does it mean to you to say that Jesus is your “reward”?

2. We should conduct our Christian lives to realize that reward. Why is that a good thing?

3. We’re not working for salvation; we’re working out salvation. What’s the difference.

Christ pronounces those to be blessed who exercise liberality without any expectation of earthly reward; for they manifestly look to God. Those who constantly keep in view their own advantage, or who are driven by the gale of popularity, have no right to expect a reward from God. John Calvin 1509-1564), Commentary on Luke 14.12-14

Pray Psalm 72.15-20.
Pray that the bounteous, precious love of Jesus will abound to you today and through you to all the people in your Personal Mission Field.

Sing Psalm 72.12-14.
(Martyrdom: Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed)
Let Christ be praised and all the gold of Sheba be His right.
Let blessings to His Name be told, and prayers made both day and night.

And let the earth abound with grain, let fields His fame proclaim.
And may our King forever reign and nations bless His great Name.

Now bless the God of Israel Who wondrous works performs.
And bless His Name, His glory tell both now and forevermore.

T. M. and Susie Moore

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (Williston: Waxed Tablet Publications, 2006), available by clicking here.