So let's have a look at this story here, and we'll read this story: Who's the faithful and wise servant, whom the master made ruler over his household, to give food in due season? Blessed is the servant whom his master, when he comes, shall find so doing. Let's just look at that part there, so the first thing is, it's a picture of an Oriental household; and so we don't tend to think of servants and slaves, but when you go to the Middle East and into Asia, they have house servants; wherever you go there's servants - it's great! Even my son and daughter in Indonesia have got servants. They'd come home, we got to say: hey, wake up guys - we aren't your servants [Laughter] and there are no servants in New Zealand, okay? Not in terms of having someone run around the house doing something for you. You've got to pull your weight, pick up stuff after you, clean up your mess, and take part in the responsibilities of the house - but over in Indonesia they quite like it, because they got two people as servants, and one does all the cooking and one does all the housework, and what a life! So anyway, there it is. So they got servants, but they pay them something for it; and so this is a picture of an Oriental household, and every one of the servants has got a responsibility in the household. Everyone's got responsibility in the household, and so you notice here it says: the master has made the person ruler over his household, to give them their food in due season. So the words 'make a ruler' means to appoint a person to a role or a function, to give them something to do in other words.
It's a household full of servants, and each one of the servants is given an assignment, something to do with their life, something - a duty, a responsibility to discharge, got the idea? And the servant there, is one who gives himself to the world. Interesting the word servant here is the word [doulos]. Remember when I shared the scripture on what Jesus said it took to be great? He said: if you want to be great, become a servant - [diarcena] meaning literally a servant - but if you want to be the greatest, become [doulos], the servant of all. So now what He's saying is, this person is a person who's in the household of the master, he's got a personal assignment, and he's got a life of loyalty to his master's wishes and intentions. That's the picture that's created, so anyone who understood what he was saying would know - they'd think of a household, a big household, many servants, people who are totally dedicated to fulfilling the master's wishes, and every one of them's got a job and an assignment to fulfil, and then the master goes away and comes back, and checks them out.
Now what is the job the servant has got to do? Let's have a look at the servant first of all, because - good servant there - and here's a couple of things for us to see. The first thing is this: his responsibility was to give them their meat in due season. Well I read that a little bit, and I think goodness me, what on earth does that all mean? And then I started to realise, I just looked at what the intention behind it is this, very simply it's this: he's calling on every servant to provide nourishment to the household, and it's to be in due season, or with the right timing; so you've got two things that they're called to do. Each servant has got a responsibility to provide something that'll build up the household; and it's to be in due season, so that means timeliness. In other words, it's not just a grinding-on service. It's actually spirit-led, spirit-empowered serving; so putting it all together, the Bible tells us: we are members of the household of God; and every one of us are servants of the living God; and everyone of us has a responsibility to the household of God, to give meat in due season; in other words to be led by the Holy Spirit, to nourish and build up other believers.
What happens is, the church has moved over generations, from being a community or a family or a household, into something like an organisation and meetings. This is not what God has in mind. Neither is it what He's speaking of here. He's speaking of a household of the master, so He's talking about the church He's building. He's talking about the people of God, and how every one of us is responsible to nourish, build up, and provide for others out of what God has given us, being led by the spirit. Really quite simple isn't it?