Luke chapter 17, verse 7, if you would.
But which of you having a servant plowing or feeding
cattle will say unto him by and by when
he has come from the field, go and sit down to me,
and will not rather say unto him,
make ready wherewith I may sub, and gird thyself,
and serve me till I have eaten and drunken.
And afterward, thou shalt eat and drink.
Doth he that thanked the servant because he
did the things that were commanded of him, I tro not.
You see here, we have a story of a servant that's just doing
what's being commanded of him.
And the master, he's not thanking him for that.
He's not giving him praise for that.
He's just doing what he is supposed
to be doing at this point.
So number one, I want you to see that following
the commandments of God, that's the first point, following
the commandments of God.
In Romans 12.1, we are commanded to follow
the commandments of God.
Romans 12.1 says, I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is what?
Your reasonable service.
No, it's just reasonable that we follow the commandments of God.
It's just reasonable that we do the things that he asks us,
is what it's saying.
1 John 5.1 says, whosoever believeth that Jesus is
the Christ is born of God, and every one that loveth him
that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him.
By this we know that we love the children of God
when we love God and keep his commandments.
Not only are we supposed to just follow the commandments,
but if we actually love God, we will keep his commandments.
We will do them.
1 John 5.3, for this is the love of God
that we keep his commandments.
And his commandments are not grievous.
OK, the commandments that we have to follow,
they're not grievous.
They're not grievous for us, right?
So what are some examples of commandments
that we're supposed to do?
Well, number one, we are commanded to get saved, right?
In Acts 22, we have Saul recounting
the story of his salvation when he's preached the gospel
by Ananias.
Acts 22 14 says this.
It says, and he said, the God of our fathers
hath chosen thee that thou shouldest know his will
and see that just one and should hear the voice of his mouth.
He's talking about actually seeing Jesus and hearing
the voice of his mouth.
You know, if Jesus is the word, when we pick up this book,
are we not looking upon that just one, right?
When we read his words, when we hear his words,
are we not hearing the voice of that just one?
We're hearing the voice of his mouth.
Acts 22 16 says, and why terriest thou?
It says, arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins,
calling upon the name of the Lord.
If that's the word of God and it's saying,
arise and be baptized, calling upon the name of the Lord,
we are commanded to get saved.
2 Corinthians 6 2 says, for he saith,
I have heard thee in a time accepted,
and in the day of salvation have I suckered thee.
Behold, now is the time accepted.
Behold, now is the day of salvation.
You are commanded to get saved.
In this room, we don't have that problem, thankfully.
But when we are out there, you know,
it is a commandment for people that are unsaved to get saved.
They don't know that, we need to show them that, right?
Also, you know, what else are we commanded to do?
We are commanded to get baptized, right?
Acts 10 47, can any man forbid water
that these should not be baptized,
which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?
Acts 10 48 says, and he commanded them to be baptized.
You know, we are commanded to get saved,
we are commanded to get baptized.
We're also commanded to go to church, right?
Hebrews 10 24, and let us consider one another
to provoke unto love and good works,
not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together.
You know, we are commanded to be in church.
That's where we learn and hear the Word of God
being preached and teached.
Not only that, but we are commanded to go sowing.
We're commanded to go out and preach that gospel, right?
Mark 16 15 says, and he said unto them, go, go.
Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature.
Look, we are commanded to do a lot of things,
but what does it actually mean to be profitable, right?
You see, the definition of profit is this.
It says the excess of returns over expenditure
in a transaction or series of transactions,
especially the excess of selling price of goods
over their cost, right?
The biblical definition of profitable
is simply put in Titus 3 eight as good.
You are good if you are profitable, right?
So is just following the commandments of God
being profitable?
That's the question.
Is just following the commandments of God being profitable?
Is just getting saved, getting baptized,
going to church and going soul winning, being profitable?
That's the question.
Look, if you get saved, is that profitable to God?
No, that's just profitable to yourself.
Look, that just saves you from hell.
Is getting baptized profitable to God?
That's just profitable to you.
That helps you get filled with the Holy Spirit, right?
When you're actually following the things.
Is just going to church being profitable to God?
No, that's just for yourself too.
No, that's where we learn.
That's where we grow.
It's for us, right?
Is just going soul winning profitable to ourselves
or is it profitable to God?
It's actually also profitable to yourself
because when you go out and preach the gospel,
what are you doing?
You're keeping blood off of your hands, right?
So here's the thing.
Just doing what God commands you to do
is not being a profitable servant.
You're not being profitable to God.
You're being profitable to yourself at that point.
You're there in Luke 17, look at verse 10.
It says, so likewise ye, when ye shall have done
all those things which are commanded you,
say we are unprofitable servants.
We have just done that which is our duty to do.
That's all we've done at that point.
That's all you've done.
You've just done your duty.
You're not profitable yet.
So point number two is this, being profitable to God.
What does it take to be profitable to God?
How do we become profitable to God?
Well, in Job 22, the question is asked,
can a man be profitable to God?
Job 22 two, can a man be profitable unto God
as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?
You know, just like we're profitable to ourselves
when we follow the commandments, can we do that for God?
Well, the answer is quite frankly, yes, you can do that.
So how do you do that?
Well, it's obvious.
How we do that is by actually following
that great commission.
You know, the great commission isn't just going out
and preaching the gospel, right?
No, it's more than that.
Matthew 28, 19, go ye therefore and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world.
You see, we're not just commanded in the great commission
to go out and just preach the gospel.
We're actually commanded to go out and get people saved,
then bring them to church, then get them baptized,
then get them to go out and preach the gospel too.
That's when you're profitable.
When you recreate yourself and you reproduce yourself
and you now have more than one of you going out
and doing the same thing, you're profitable to God.
When you get that done, that's when you're profitable.
So the question is this.
You know, why do we wanna be profitable?
Well, because of what?
And it's been brought up a couple times before,
because of the judgment seat of Christ.
You know, 2 Corinthians 5, 10 says,
for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
that everyone may receive the things done in his body,
according to that he had done, whether it be good or bad.
And how am I gonna associate that
with the judgment seat of Christ?
Well, we're gonna do that by looking
at the parable of the talents, okay?
In the parable of the talents, you know,
it's kind of a picture of the judgment seat of Christ.
You know, in the parable, we see what?
We see that that first servant didn't just do
what he was commanded to do,
but he actually went above and beyond.
He reproduced those talents.
He went from five to 10, right?
Matthew 25, 20 says, and so he that had received
five talents came and brought other five talents,
saying, Lord, thou deliverest unto me five talents.
Behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
Then what does the Lord do?
He rewards him for being profitable.
He took what was commanded to him and he reproduced it.
Matthew 25, 21, his Lord said unto him,
well done, thou good and faithful servant.
Thou has been faithful over a few things.
I will make thee ruler over many things.
Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
You see, 3 John 1, 4 says this.
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children,
my spiritual children walk in truth.
Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest
to the brethren and to strangers,
which have borne witnesses of the charity before the church,
whom if thou bring forward on their journey
after a godly sort, thou shalt do well.
You will do well when you go out and preach the gospel,
get somebody saved, get them into church,
get them baptized and get them back out soul winning.
That's how we become profitable.
So number one is this, don't rip off God.
Don't be a rip off, all right?
He paid for you, don't rip them off, all right?
If you're not preaching the gospel,
you need to go out there and start doing that, right?
And if you're preaching the gospel,
don't rip off your converts, all right?
Tell them about baptism, tell them about coming to church.
Get them in church, get them baptized
and get them out soul winning
and be a profitable servant unto God.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Jesus, I pray that you place the edge of protection
around us today as we go out and preach your word.
I pray that you work in our hearts
and you help us to preach your word,
keep us strong, keep us safe,
keep all the soul winners safe that are out today, Lord.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.