Slave vs. Bondslave
To say that Jay Carty is an unusual communicator is a mild statement. Maybe a little nuts would be more accurate. Not a preacher, not a teacher, more a storyteller with a very important message. Where some deep preachers are too snoozy for the rank and file, and where some humorists don’t have much to say, Jay’s stuff is generally regarded as an unusual blending of humor and profound content. A former Oregon State basketball star and LA Laker, Jay has dedicated his life to helping people say yes to God. Now we hope you enjoy Carty’s Contemporary Classics.
Visualize a low-ceilinged room, little holes letting in angular shafts of light reflecting off the dust from men milling on the floor, and oil lamps giving off a soot. The slaves are tethered with leather thongs on the ankle and the wrists over there. The auction block is there. The auctioneer is there, and the block is here. It’s slave trading day. The men are there. And they’ve just auctioned off a 52-year-old ex-gladiator, got a sore back and a bad shoulder. And all he can do is talk and he is not worth much, not then, not now. But a 17-year-old girl, beautiful, high cheek bones and proud, a virgin, thonged at the wrist, which made her stoop shouldered, and she had to shuffle because she was thonged at the ankle. But the men perked up. The bidding would be brisk. She’s a prize of this man.
You need to know about him. Vicious, cruel, awful, the worst of the bunch. Loved to take his slaves and beat them, skin them, scourge them, dismember them and devise ways to kill slowly and painfully. That was his pleasure. And this man, benevolent Roman prince, good man, older man. Loved his slaves, treated them like his own children, nurtured them, educated them. Best, worst. They all knew it. Grapevine traveled fast. The bidding was brisk and she stared over the tops, unaffected by the bidding until he bid. And when he bid, the corner of her mouth and her neck gave her away. It was a “Oh, no” kind of look. “I hope he’s not interested in me.” When he bid again, she turned, repulsed, and he smiled and upped his bid without anybody saying a word. And she knew she was in trouble.
And when the good man bid, she turned, pleading. It was dashed with his, encouraged with his. Someone else bid, she didn’t even hear, but then finally, nobody else bid. Just him and him and him and him. And then she was crying. As mature as she was, she couldn’t handle it. It would either be the worst or the best. There would be no in between for her. And when that hit her, it was tough. And then the bad guy bid and the good guy didn’t, and the auctioneer said, “Going, going.” And her eyes riveted on that gavel. And it started down, and a G started to form in the man’s mouth to pronounce, “Gone,” with the coinciding of the strike of the hammer on that table.
And if you’d looked at her face right then, you would’ve seen total resignation. She gave up all hope. She resigned herself to a fate that was far worse than anything she could imagine. But just before the hammer struck, the good man sprung to his feet. And he said, “Stop. I have one last bid.” The amount of his bid was greater than the total net worth of the wicked guy. If he’d liquidated everything and turned it into cash, he couldn’t have amassed enough money to surpass the bid. The man bid more than was necessary, more than had ever been bid, but he wanted to prove two points. One, auction’s over, Jack. And two, you are out of your league.
The wicked man slammed his books closed, knowing he couldn’t even counter. He stormed out the door and slammed the door, and the men stood in stunned silence. No one had ever paid that kind of money for a slave. And the good guy stood, and he took off his cloak, and he wrapped her nakedness in that, and he took out his dagger, and he sank to his knee, and he cut it off, that thong off of each ankle and the thong off of each wrist. And he sheltered her under his arm.
And he said, “Prepare a declaration of freedom. Today, this girl is free. And she’ll be a Roman princess, and she’ll be a full heir of a portion of my inheritance. Melt the wax.” He took his signet ring and he pressed it. And it became law. They gave it the girl. To their surprise, her head started going back and forth, and she tore it up. And she said, “I can’t. Because you paid a price that was so great, I can’t imagine how much money that was. And I can’t imagine what you saved me from. I can’t imagine. And I’m just so grateful that I just don’t want any rights to myself. I would rather be your bond slave.”
If a Jew had to sell himself into slavery to pay his debts, he served seven years. He had one option for freedom, one option only. If he took it, he was free. If he didn’t, the rest of his life, a slave, but with a different attitude. You see, as a slave, he had to serve. As a bond slave, he chooses to serve. It’s a total shift. And they take him to the doorpost of the owner, and they stick his ear in the door, and they close the door, and they cauliflower it, brand it, mark it with the doorpost of the owner and pierce it and put a ring in that ear. Signifies here’s a person who’s given up all rights to themselves for the privilege of serving their master for all the rest of their days.
Do you get it? When Paul, Peter, James, Epaphroditus, others declare, “I, Paul, a bond slave of Jesus Christ,” do you understand what it means? It means, “God, you saved me from hell. I cannot imagine how bad it would be. And such a price.” I would not trade my son for you. If you’re walking across the street with him and a dump truck broke loose, and there was only time to save one of you, you are dead meat. If I had to sacrifice all of you for him, it would be hard to live with. I choose him. I choose my daughter. I choose my kids. Do you get that one? God said, “About the only way I can really prove to you the depth of my love is to show it.” Because what you believe will always be manifest in your behavior. And God loves you perfectly. And to show it, he says, “I love you this much.” Do you know what your response ought to be? Gratitude.
You can get saved on the basis of fear. “I don’t want to go to hell.” Not the most noble of reasons. It is biblical, as long as you are willing to follow him. You can get saved on the basis of rewards. It is more noble than fear. “I want heaven and I want the fruit of the Spirit now. I will follow him.” But the best reason of all, folks, when those concepts come together out of sheer gratitude, he saved you from hell at the price of his son. You ought to be so grateful, you just give up everything for him. Just thrust it all in his hands, and let him give you back what’s going to be good for you and keep what’s not, and follow him because the pursuit of anything else will be harmful to you, and the pursuit of him will develop your character and your godliness.
And then what you go through, you see, we go through what we go through to help other people get through what we went through. That’s how God makes good out of it. So we’re down to a decision. The issue is lordship, not lukewarmness, the issue is lordship. And those of you who declare that, oh, there’s a terrible price. You see the first stop is the cooking pot. The crucible, the metal, the draws, comes the server, scrape it off, cook, dry, oh, hot in the pot. Oh, cool water. Yes. Ah, back in the pot. Oh, hot, and finally you’re ready. Because he rarely has used anybody greatly that he hasn’t hurt deeply. Because it’s the fires of the crucible that mold the character. So how’s it sounding?
And loneliness, that’s the other thing. Loneliness, because you see, a hot on fire, going for it, no holds barred Jesus loving believer makes a lukewarm one very uncomfortable. And you’ll sort your friends out rather quickly. So what I offer you is the cooking pot and loneliness. Sound good? And fulfillment beyond your wildest dreams. And meaning to a life, meaning and reason and purpose. Ah, I don’t do 10 verses of Just as I Am. Not my style. When people have a chance to receive Christ or respond to a call, I’m not going to play with your emotions. But this is what I’d like to do. If God has spoken to you, remember we’re going to listen on Sunday, remember? We’re going to listen for God’s voice. And if we heard it tonight, we agreed back then, yeah, I’m going to do it unless it’s too tough. Well, now we’re down to, yeah, I’m confronted with that.
And so if God has spoken to you, and you’ve done something significant, like you chose to forgive and you put that date, so you could resist the devil with that, and you dealt with past immorality, or you gave your body to Christ in a moral purity, or you reclaimed your spiritual virginity, or tonight, you made the decision to rearrange your priorities, those are significant decision. If you come to Christ, that’s a significant decision. If you’ve made any other decision that you call significant, in a moment I’m going to ask you to stand, that I might have the privilege of praying for you. The cameras will not be on you.
Now, be comfortable staying seated. I came filled with the Spirit, I’m leaving filled with the Spirit. I wouldn’t stand up. I didn’t make a decision this week. If you should have made a decision and you didn’t, stay seated with the folks who didn’t need to make one. And then we won’t know the difference. But the rest of you who did make a decision, in a moment, I’m going to ask you to stand. I will pray for you. Then I’m going to ask everybody to stand. And then I’m going to say those folks who have never seriously dealt with the issue of Jesus Christ, this issue of lordship, no holds barred, God, here I am, use me, restfully available, instantly obedient, Africa, sure, South America, you got it, seminary, mm-hmm (affirmative), Newport Beach, sure. Wherever he wants you to go in whatsoever state you find yourself, including California, no holds barred.
Now, if you’ve already done that, stay right where you are. But if you’ve never done that and you’re ready to do that, then I’m going to ask you to come forward, and you’re going to stand, you’re going to face your peers in this group, and you’re going to say, “Here I am. I want to go for it, no holds barred. And I want you to hold me accountable for this decision.” That’s hard. I like to make it hard, so it will mean something. If nobody comes forward, don’t feel badly for me. I’ve done my job. I told this story. That’s all I’m supposed to do.
D.L. Moody was walking down the street, that great evangelist, and a drunk was in the gutter. And he said, “Why, D.L. Moody, you saved me five years ago.” Moody said, “Yep. You look like one of my converts, not one of the Lord’s.” I did not save anybody this week. I did not confront you with lordship. It would’ve been the Spirit of God who’s confronted you. I’ve been faithful to do my tasks. If we are flooded with the front, that’ll be great. If we are not flooded, I’ll be sad, but not for me. Let’s pray.
Father, in the next few minutes, we invite your Holy Spirit to work in a profound and powerful way. Work on the wills of men and women. Release the clutch of the enemy. For those who don’t know you as savior, would you show them clearly Satan does not want to spend forever with them. They just don’t want them spending forever with you. Break that. And then for those who are lukewarm or those who came to Christ out of fear or rewards, would you graduate them tonight in no holds barred lordship? God, show them the significance of a life that’s sold out to you, what that means. I pray you use the next few minutes to glorify yourself.
If you made a serious decision this week, would you do me the pleasure of standing, that I might pray for you? Pastoral staff, you look around, see some folks that can follow up with if you need to. Anybody else? No social deal here. Just if you made a significant decision this week. Father, here we are. And there are a raft of decisions represented here. And I pray that you’ll bless each one of them, and that you’ll protect them from the enemy, and that they’ll remember to practice their principles of submitting to God and resisting the devil and putting the two-year-old to bed. And that they’ll remember their dates, so that they can go to those dates and rely on that date, the authority of scripture and the power of Jesus’ name to stand firm and prevail.
Thank you for those who are forgiven. Thank you for those who’ve dealt with their immorality. Thank you for the virgins here, who have given their bodies to Christ and the moral purity, and those of us who haven’t been so pure, who have also done the same. Thank you for the ability to reclaim our spiritual virginity. And thank you for sorting our priorities. And for the other decisions that are here that I haven’t mentioned, God, just bless them. They’ve made a stand. Anoint them with power, I pray.
And if you’d all stand, please. If you are ready to make that decision, folks, this is a vow. Doesn’t mean you’re not going to sin anymore. It means you won’t want to. It means you are thrusting yourself into the hands of God and saying, “Here I am, use me, fill the gap with me wherever you choose to plant me.” If you’ve made this decision, stay right where you are. If you don’t understand the spiritual significance of this decision, don’t move. It is really dangerous to make a vow that you don’t understand. Bible doesn’t say don’t make vows. It says don’t make them lightly. But if you are ready for the most exciting journey that you can possibly imagine, fulfillment beyond your wildest dreams, I will pray that God will so fill you with his Spirit that you won’t know you’re being cooked. But I don’t know. If you’re ready to do that, would you step out from where you are and come down here and face your peers, saying, “Please, hold me accountable. I want to pull all hands off my life.” Let’s do that now.
Father, thank you for these, the boldness to say, “God, here I am.” And to stand before their peers and say, “Hold me accountable to this whole business of lordship. I don’t want to run my life. I want Christ to run my life, and I want to serve him with a whole heart.” And whatever it means for each of these folks to spend the rest of their lives, giving their lives away for the cause of Christ, to find life, God, wherever that is, would you bless them? Would you empower them? Will you keep them filled? Will you protect them against temptation? Will you guard them against the enemy?
Would you remind them when to do their polar bear alerts and when to stand firm and when to resist? God, would you remind them? They really want to listen. Here they are. Father, if it’s possible, keep them from the deep pain. Help them to learn their lessons, so that maybe they’re so filled, they don’t know they’re being cooked. That’d be great. But if the cooking’s necessary, then they’re saying, “Here I am. Cook me because I want to live a life that means something for Christ.” God bless them. Change this church, change this town, and change the portion of the world that each one of them will be. I submit them for your blessing, in Jesus’ name.
We hope that you enjoyed this week’s installment of Carty’s Contemporary Classics. We’ll join Jay next week for a continuation of his laugh-inducing and thought-provoking insights. Until then, you can catch up on Jay’s and many other encouraging and instructive podcasts at the E-Squared Media Network at www dot E2 Media Network dot com.
