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A Servant to Pleasure - Titus 3:3
A Servant to Pleasure - Titus 3:3For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
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INTRODUCTION
Though the testimony of each believer has its own unique details, all were guilty of sinning against a holy God. The apostle Paul included himself when he said prior to salvation believers served divers lusts and pleasures. The apostle Paul knew that he had been in a sense a slave or servant to his own desires. The unending need for pleasure drives those who know not the Lord, just as it drove each believer before he or she was born again. Unfortunately, there is no satisfaction in this form of servitude. The individual who partakes in worldly pleasure does so only to find a greater need for additional pleasure. He becomes pleasure’s servant with no hope of freedom apart from the Lord.
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS
- (For smaller children) When we become a child of God, He gives us the power and warns us to live differently from the world (Galatians 2:20I am crucified with Christ: neverthless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
See All...; 2 Corinthians 5:17Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
See All...; 1 John 2:15-17 [15] Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. [16] For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. [17] And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
See All...). Solomon tried many pleasures (Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 [1] I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity. [2] I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it? [3] I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life. [4] I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards: [5] I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits: [6] I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees: [7] I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me: [8] I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts. [9] So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. [10] And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. [11] Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
See All...) but found they did not satisfy. The one to which he was a servant made God angry (1 Kings 11:1But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites:
See All..., 2, 9-11). - What are some types of pleasure that have historically been able to enslave individuals? Have any of these pleasures been able to enslave you?
- What things changed when you got saved? Did you forsake any former pleasures after you were born again? Are there any pleasures you need to forsake now?
PRAYER NEEDS
- Thank the Lord that you do not have to be a servant of pleasure.
- Ask the Lord to give you victory over pleasures.
HYMN
Wonderful Grace of Jesus
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Proverbs 29:9
If a wise man contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest.