Luke 12:32-48 8-7-2022 (As built, Amite #506)
- Master or servant… master… or servant…
- The year is about nineteen thirty… most of you know John but not like that way… he’ll tell you that he’s a New York boy… but he also would have told you… his parents would have told you especially his mom… he has got a heart the size of the world… you don’t necessarily see it when he’s growing up… and she’ll tell you… she said even if you were to ask my son he will tell you… his life… tumultuous… by the age of three he lost his brother… his only brother… by the age of nine… he’ll tell you I remember that day… he said I’m sitting at the kitchen table with my mom… my dad comes in… takes off his coat… lays it over the chair… puts his hat down… walks through the house… picks up every photo album… every picture… picks up his watch… comes back… picks up his hat… his coat… picks up his check… walks out… never sees him again… he said it’s just me and my mom… she starts working for the transit authority… she said man John… you’ve got to go to school… you’ve got to learn something… and he’ll tell you… he loved school… his mom said you should… you never went… she said you know the problem with you John... is you love sticks… stick ball… baseball… hockey… pool cues… anything… he goes mom I enjoyed high school… she goes… you enjoyed not going to school John… she goes you know what you did… and you know people don’t know my own son… she told one time later on in an autobiography he wrote… that he took limburger cheese… in seventy five radiators in the school… they closed it for days… then he said he got so excited he wanted to see how the choir reacted when they through a snake in the middle of them… he got sent home for a week… and then all of a sudden man he said the best day of his life… he said I was graduating and they made me the MC of graduation… he said the kids loved it… and his mom reminded him and so did the teachers… because you’re leaving that year and not coming back… his mom eventually passes away when he's young… he’s about twenty years old… he has thirty-nine cents in his pocket… he said man he's got to do something… it’s his personality… it’s as big as a room… man he is a servants servant… he loves people… he get’s a bit job in a movie called larceny… and then whatever it takes to form a marriage… and then he get’s in another one called the requiem of a heavy weight… okay this is not good… he’s in another one… they filmed in Baton Rouge called The Toy… swing and a miss okay… he actually… get’s another one called the hustler where he plays Minnesota fats… oh I tell you what… he was Buford T Justice okay better yet… let me finish before I crash and burn let me finish… he is known… his best friend did a sitcom… his best friend worked in the sewer… I thank him for that… and he used to tell his wife… you know Alice are those funny on the moon… because that’s where you’re going Alice… to the moon Alice… to the moon… okay Jackie Gleason my brothers and sisters in Christ work with me… my brothers and sisters in Christ you know what’s amazing… is that they said his heart is so big that he could never stay mad at people long because he was just a giving heart… he was a servants servant… as a matter of fact do you know what it says on his tombstone… I don’t know if you remember the sitcom or the show… and away we go… my brothers and sisters in Christ… master… or servant.
- That is that gospel… this is what the Good Lord is telling them when he’s coming… what will it be for you when I come back… will you be the great master because you think everything came through you… because money… fame or fortune… or will you be the servants servant… will you serve me… or be the master of your own domain… now my brothers and sisters stop you need to understand where this is going… they’re very Jewish… Christ is a Jew his mother is a Jew… his step-father if you will is a Jew… they’re Jewish people… so as a result of it he’s talking to the apostles... that’s why there are very few… very few believers… half of one percent of the people… listen to what I’m telling you… Half of one percent of the people believed Christ to be the messiah… if I were to ask you… what is the one person outside of her… and him… that every time they saw Christ… they recognized him… this is how few people believe Christ to be the Messiah… who is the one person every time they met him… they said you’re the Messiah… anybody… Satan… every time they met… he said you truly are the son of God… what do you have to do with me… why have you come… my brothers and sisters in Christ that’s how few people that he’s speaking to…and he’s trying to warn them… my brothers in Christ… that you don’t know the hour or the day… because remember this… the Jews believe that Christ is coming on Passover… which means he’s reminding the apostles… remember when I came for you in the last supper… I got dressed up… I girded my loins… I put you at the table and I washed your feet… I serve… so shall you… he’s remind them of that meeting… and he’s trying to tell them… that’s why I’m telling you… you need to gird your loins… and serve other people… and then he makes one more step… he said man it’s going to be like a thief in the night… you don’t know when I’m coming… you don’t know your hour or the day… now remember this… there are four watches… for the Roman world… six to nine… nine to twelve… twelve to three… three to six… in the Jewish world there are only three watches he's saying I’m going to come in the second or third watch… towards the end of your life… whatever age that may be and when I come you better be ready… now stop… I know y’all… if I were to speak to you about purgatory… you would dismiss me quickly… If I was in another faith and I go speak to other churches… I get it all the time… please… Father… they hand me the bible king James version… and say… find the word purgatory in the book… I say here let me help you… it's right next to the word trinity… oh that’s right that word isn’t there either… oh that’s right you’re looking for an English word in a book written in Greek… how much time will we spend on this… you just heard him describe purgatory… how well were you listening… he said there are four groups of people… and when I come on my judgment day… final judgment… second coming… after everybody’s going to be ruled… and judged on… we’re all dead… he’s saying you’re going to land in four different categories… you will either be saved and brought to heaven… because you were on guard and you were serving the people like I expected… or… you’re going to fall in hell… and you’re going to be considered unfaithful… because you beat people… you ruled over them… you dominated them… and as a matter of fact when I came you totally ignored me… you’re in hell… he said your punishment… make sure you understand this in their language… do you know what the punishment was… I’m going to cut you in half… that’s what he’s saying… I’ve come to judge you and this is your finally judgement… I’m going to cut you in half… it’s for all eternity… then he says to the other ones… you should have known better but you weren’t prepared so you will be beaten severely… but It’s only temporal… and then there are those who are ignorant and really didn’t know what to do… he said you will only be beaten lightly… where else is there… there’s heaven… there’s hell… that’s right my brothers and sisters in Christ he’s explaining purgatory… he’s telling you that if you do not learn to serve me in this world… then you will come to find out who the master is on judgment day… how many times do I hear people say throughout scripture… people are always saying well I’m actually kind of… I control my own life… my brothers and sisters in Christ every time in scripture when somebody of means comes to our savior… like the rich man… y’all remember the parable… the rich man goes to see Christ… and he says Lord what do I got to do to get to heaven… he says well keep the commandments… and the young man goes oh… got that… so the good Lord says… oh so you follow the commandments… and he said oh absolutely… the good Lord purposely starts with number four… you honor your mother and father so you’ll have a long life in the land that I’ve given you… absolutely… you murder anybody… oh not me… commit adultery… not my thing… stole anything… no I don’t need to I got too much money… have you bear false witness against your neighbor… no I don’t really have any neighbors… do you covet your neighbor’s goods or spouse… no I got plenty of money… okay so you kept the commandments… absolutely… so what does the good Lord do… now let’s go back and do numbers one two and three… you love me with your whole heart… your whole mind and your whole soul… you will not use my name in vain or have strange gods before me… my brothers in Christ the rich man is not following him… because he believes that he is the master… and the good Lord says man you can’t even keep my commandments…
- My brothers and sisters in Christ throughout scripture people always are falling into the category… you’re either a master… or you serve… it’s one of two ways… my brother’s in Christ look… think of the world that you and I live in… let me ask you… if we took a time clock… and I said for the amount of time you and I spend on the cell phone… versus how much we pray… which one is our master… if I told you if we took the amount of time that we read the newspaper or watched television… versus read scripture… which one is our master… if I told you that man we need to learn to be sacrificial… and we need to learn to fast… how many of us legitimately skip a meal… which is our master… food… or sacrifice… my brothers and sisters in Christ when somebody comes up and we start speaking about other people… do you make sure that you purposely step away from that conversation… because you are a servant of God… you are love of neighbor… so therefor you are not going to partake into it and say look I’ll just pray for them… or do you get involved in the conversation and say well you think you know that’s bad let me tell you this part… well you think that’s it well you ought to know what I know… well I know the truth… nobody told you and I to be the town crier… let’s be honest… my brothers and sisters in Christ we live in a world that’s being dominated by things that are bringing you and I to the wrong path… you and I spend more time texting… then we do praying… you and I spend more time talking about others then talking about God… my brothers in Christ how many times do you and I get up in prideful things… in other words that we’re so prideful we’re just not going to say we’re sorry… I’m not going to admit that I’m wrong… I’m not going to do it… I’m going to win this argument… oh and you will… until the day you find out that you’re not going to be judged on it… you’re so angry that you get mad at God… you’re so mad at your folks that It’s always their fault… my brothers and sisters in Christ a friend of mine came to me and he said you know it’s always my parents fault… and I said I tell you what from this day forward… your parents ain’t got nothing to do with it… no more blaming them after today… today it’s on me and you and we go forward… the sun didn’t set… father… I got to tell you… you know my parents… woah woah woah we already discussed this… that one’s on you… you want to pull me into it that’s great too but it’s not on them… you and I have free will… and that is the problem… sometimes I wish you and I didn’t have free will… the next time you look at that big painting of God the Father reaching out to touch Adam… do you notice that God the Father is reaching and stretching to trying to get his finger across… and Adam is leaning back somewhat with his finger albeit bent… that gap between those two fingers in free will… you got to decide whether you’re going to be a master… or you’re going to be a servant… that you’re going to spend more time in prayer and going to confession… my brothers and sisters in Christ if you and I go to confession for the same sins over and over and over again… does that tell you that you and I are not replacing it with a virtue… that we’re not spending enough time in prayer… in mass… reading the scripture… going to adoration… how many of us go to adoration… we just don’t have the time… you don’t have the time not to go my brothers and sisters in Christ… don’t you see… that’s the whole fight… you and I are going to get two coins at our birth… that’s all we’ll ever get… time and free will…those are our two coins… and on the day you and I die… the nanosecond… the nanosecond you and I pass… when everybody’s arguing about who get’s what… what they’re going to wear… how we’re going to sing… who’s going to say what… the nanosecond… you’re before God and he says I want an accountability of every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every year and every year that you were alive… and I want to know every decision that you made… my brothers and sisters in Christ you will either be a master or you will be a servant of Jesus Christ…
- And I leave you in these words… you cannot walk with God… and hold hands with the evil one… if there is a fence between heaven and hell it’s owned by the devil himself… you’re either in… or you are out… there is no negotiation… no arbitration… no mediation… the judgment will be final… you and I will land in one of three spots… and there will be no barking out of it… how many times have you and I gone to a funeral… ask yourselves… how many times have you gone to a funeral… be honest… where the reverend and or priest… stood up and said… I’m not sure that guy made it… everybody’s in a better spot… than Christ is liar… and you know that’s not true… you cannot walk with Christ… and hold hands with the devil… you’re either in or you’re out… you’re either the master of the world… or you are a servant of Jesus Christ…
- Amen…
