#454 Unseen Servants

Welcome to Kingdom Writers, where we help equip and empower Christian writers of all genres to share your unique gifts with the world. We're your hosts, C.J. and Shelli Hitz.

This podcast is filled with spiritual encouragement as well as prayers to help you overcome the resistance you face as a writer. Your story matters.

Welcome to the Kingdom Writers Podcast. My name is Shelly Hitz, one of your hosts. This episode is an excerpt from our virtual writing retreat we host every month inside our membership Christian Book Academy. You can join us with a special coupon code just for podcast listeners, and this will get you 50% off your first month. Use the coupon code podcast and this way we can help you take a step of faith and finally finish your book. So go to ChristianBookAcademy.com and enter the Coupon Code Podcast at checkout for 50% off your first month. Come join us at our retreats and all the other things that we offer throughout the month. And I pray that the encouragement from this episode blesses you. And so in today's training, CJ is going to talk about unseen servants. And so, cj, why don't you share that encouragement with us?

Yeah. So I'm going to move around to a few different places this morning, but I want to start off with a story in the Old Testament.

Second Kings, chapter 5. And just to give you a quick little background here, many of us know the story of a man named Naaman who had leprosy. He was an Aramean commander, army commander, and he was sent to Elisha the Prophet to seek healing. And so he brought with them this large amount of gifts. £750 of silver, 10 sets of clothing, basically a lot of bounty to.

Give in exchange for this healing. And so he. He travels there. He eventually, after some hesitation, goes and dips himself in the Jordan river seven times, just like the prophet asked. And he's. He's clean after that, he's healed. And so he offers the gifts. And many of you remember that Eli Elisha said, you keep your gifts. I wish you well. And, you know, use them, use them for something else. But we're going to decline. Well, Elisha had this servant named Gehazi, and we're going to pick up where Naaman had headed down the road. But Gehazi runs after him without his master's knowing. And it says this in verse 20 of chapter 5, 2 Kings 5. But Gehazi the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said to himself, my master should not have let the Aramean get away. Without accepting any of his gifts. As surely as the Lord lives, I will chase after him and get something from him. So Gehazi set off after Naaman. When Naaman saw Gehazi running after him, he climbed down from his chariot and went to meet him. Is everything all right? Naaman asked. Yes, Gehazi said, but my master has sent me to tell you that two young prophets from the hill country of Ephraim have just arrived. He would like 75 pounds of silver and two sets of clothing to give to them. By all means, take twice as much silver, Naaman insisted. He gave him two sets of clothing, tied up the money in two bags, and sent two of his servants to carry the gifts for Gehazi. But when they arrived at the citadel, Gehazi took the gifts from the servants and sent the men back. Then he went and hid the gifts inside him his house.

When he went to his master, Elisha asked him, where have you been, Gehazi? Well, I haven't been anywhere, he replied. But Elisha asked him, don't you realize that I was there in spirit when Naaman stepped down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to receive money and clothing? Olive groves and vineyards, sheep and cattle, male and female servants? Because you have done this, you and your descendants will suffer from Naaman's leprosy forever. When Gehazi left the room, he was covered with leprosy. His skin was white as snow.

So why do I share this story to begin with?

Well, we see that Gehazi was, you know, this servant to Elisha, who was the popular prophet. He was known throughout Israel. People would send others to him, maybe for a word or to hear from the Lord, or in this case, to seek a healing.

And how many know that? Sometimes you know, like you're in Gehazi's position. You've been toiling away for years. You've been doing good work, you're faithful to your master. And how many know that sometimes you just want your own little reward? You know, what's in it for me? I mean, come on, I've been toiling, I've been sweating. I've been serving you. Why did you refuse this offer, Elisha? And you can almost just see some bitterness rising up in Gehazi, like, I need to get something for me. I've been working hard. I need something. I can't believe you just send him back without taking something. And so what happens is this. This bitterness, I think, almost arises. I'm just imagining bitterness arising from Gehazi saying, well, you may not want it, but I want it. I want this reward. And so what does this result in? Well, it results in him lying multiple times. That's never a good thing. He's eventually found out by Elisha. I mean, imagine. Can you imagine the feeling of Elisha saying, didn't you know, I was right there in spirit watching all this go down? You talk about, like, being stopped in your tracks and having a cold sweat come over you.

Some of us may have memories of that when our mom or dad caught us, you know, growing up, stealing something, or having a cold sweat come over us when we lied and were found out. But in this case, we see a servant that in so many ways was unseen.

But he got tired of it. And he says, I need something myself. I've been toiling away. I need a little something to put away in the bank account. You may not want it, but I want it. So what we can see here is this little root of bitterness that begins to crop up. How many of us maybe have felt this way? Oh, Lord, I've been doing this and this and this. You know what? I just want a little something. Would you just reward me? Or we say, I'm going to take this reward if you're not going to give it to me. I'm going to go seeking some kind of reward from the world, one way, shape or form.

And we do. And as bitterness rises up and we say, well, you know, if you're going to refuse this, then I'm going to take it.

And I think it's so easy to get tired of being behind the scenes. We live in a world that clamors for attention, the clamorous reward, the clamors for accolade.

And yet the unseen servant. Can they be content serving behind the scenes, knowing that they're provided for? That's one instance I want to turn to another instance in Luke, chapter 1038, 42.

And this has to do with. With a gal named Martha.

Luke, chapter 10, starting in verse 38.

And it says, as Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into their home. Her sister Mary sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing, and she came to Jesus and said, lord, doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me. But the Lord said to her, oh, my dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details. There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.

And I think that sometimes we can also feel like Martha. You know, you can imagine Martha toiling in the kitchen, kind of in the background doing her thing.

But.

She just finally gets exasperated. And it would be, you know, a legitimate response. You'd say, man, I just need some help in the kitchen here. What are you guys all just sitting around there listening to Jesus? But Jesus, we see, does. Does mention that what Mary has chosen is. Is a special thing of sitting at his feet. And how many know that sometimes sitting at Jesus feet really is the most productive thing that we could be doing?

We have good things that we might be doing in the kitchen. You name the kitchen of your life, whatever that might be. We're busy, we're flowers going all over the place. Things are being done. But.

Jesus says, come and sit at my feet for a while. I can almost just imagine Jesus wanting Martha to come and also join in saying, you know what? The meal can wait. Come on and join us. I don't think Jesus would have turned her away. I don't think he would have said, no, you stay in there and fix the dinner. I think he would have more than welcomed Martha to come and sit at his feet and not miss out on these words.

But Martha became a little discontent. And she was an unseen servant, but she made herself seen in that moment. She created a scene, so to speak. And yet Jesus gently says.

Don'T worry about what Mary's doing here. Mary's chosen something good, and I'm not going to take it away from her. She is being productive in sitting here at my feet and listening. So this is another instance of how I think sometimes our unseen servant attitude can come out.

In a way where we want to be seen or we want something to change. We think that something's not fair, and so we're going to speak up about it. And I think it's easy to become a little discontent in those moments. There's another instance just a few chapters later.

Of course, one of the most popular stories in all of Scripture, the Prodigal Son. And we won't read the whole story, but I want to at least pick up with the older son. We see that this younger son went off and squandered his wealth that he was given from his father. He had asked for his inheritance.

And.

We see that the son eventually has come back.

He's going to ask for forgiveness. The father accepts him back more than Accepts him back, kills the fatted calf, gives him a ring, a robe, you name it, throws a party for him. And how does the older son respond? Oh, well, let's pick up there in verse 25 of Luke 15. Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house. And he asked one of the servants, what's going on? Your brother is back, he was told, and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.

And the older brother was angry and wouldn't go in. His father came out and begged him.

But he replied, all these years I've slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time, you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours notice, he doesn't even say his own brother, just says, this son of yours. I'm not even going to associate with this guy. This son of yours.

Comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes. You celebrate by killing the fattened calf. And his father said to him, look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours.

We had to celebrate this happy day, for your brother was dead and has come back to life. He was lost, and now he is found. Oh, friends, how easy is it for us to have an elder brother syndrome?

This elder brother serving and toiling as an unseen servant all these years.

Finally he broke. Have you ever broken. Have you ever gotten to the point where you said, where? What's in it for me? You've never killed the fattened calf for me. What's going on here? And we see somebody sort of being. Let me give you one quick example of how this has even manifested in me through some years. It's the most childish thing. But listen to this. Sometimes we'll be sitting in church.

And some of you might be able to relate to this, and the pastor decides that during a couple minutes he's going to point a few people out in the congregation.

He's just going to name them. He's going to say, man, I just want you to know about these person. These people over here have done some incredible things. They're serving the Lord and in fruitful ways. They've done this and this and this. Fill in the blank. And I just want to recognize them. And I just want to say, you're doing a great job. Now that feels good, right? If you're the person that's being Pointed out and being lifted up, that feels good. But how many of us, when we're not named, we've got the elder brother syndrome, and we say, oh, well, what about me? You haven't lifted up me. We're part of the prayer team. We do this, we do that, you know, and we just start almost fuming inside.

Or in our case, as writers, oh, Lord, they, you know, they get this bestseller, you know, kind of award, or, you know, they sold this many books, or this is. And this is happening. What about me? I've been toiling behind the scenes. My book's not selling, my book's not getting out there. I feel stuck. I feel like nobody's seeing me. And it's this unseen servant syndrome where our elder brother syndrome, where we're just not content with what the Father's given us. And so we have to cry out and we say, ah, I want this and this and this.

And we get in these modes.

Are we content being an unseen servant?

Luke, chapter 8, verses 1 through 3. I won't read that, but it mentions women by name that have been supporting Jesus. This is an instance where we see Jesus actually pointing out their names.

Luke pointing out their names as saying, these women were supporting Jesus, following him in his ministry. They deserve recognition.

Luke penned their names.

And now we read about those names 2,000 years later, about these generous women who are being dignified as following Jesus around, supporting the ministry. And their names are now written for us.

I want to now just begin to close by looking at a couple passages. Matthew, chapter 6, verses 4 through 6. To start out.

Matthew 6, 4, 6.

And it says Jesus's words here, give your gifts in private. And your Father, who sees everything.

Note that now.

Nothing gets by.

By our God. You feel unseen. You're not seen by the world. You're not being recognized by people you want to be recognized by. You're not being rewarded the way that you envision a reward having to come.

Oh, dear servant, dear unseen servant. It says here.

Your Father, who doesn't miss anything, he sees everything.

Give your gifts in private, and your father, who sees everything, will reward you. Doesn't say might, he will reward you. Oh, but it goes on. And when you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in synagogues where everyone what can see them.

I tell you the truth, and here's some strong words by Jesus himself. I tell you the truth, that's all the reward they'll ever get. If that's all you want is just a few kudos, a few likes on your Facebook page or this or that. Fine, you'll get that.

But if you want to be a true, unseen servant, listen to what he says.

But when you pray, go away by yourself.

Shut the door behind you, and pray to your father in private.

Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. You think you're unseen in the truest sense of the word. You are seen by the one audience that only matters. It's your father. He sees everything. He doesn't miss one detail. You say, you deserve this and this and this. Or you. You think, man, I put in this work I've toiled. Does anybody see me? Do I get recognition? And I want to say that even if mankind does not give you the recognition that you're craving, we all crave it in many ways. It's the flesh, but we crave it. We just want to be recognized. We want an award. We want the Hickory Farms Writer of the Week award.

We want to be known and seen. But I'm telling you, the. The recognition that you're wanting most is really that of your Father in heaven. And your father sees that.

And finally, the last little passage I want to read is Revelation, chapter 2, 2, 4.

Revelation 2, 2, 4.

And it says this. Jesus is talking. John's doing the dictating here in Revelation. But these are the words of Jesus to these churches.

And I want you to almost envision and hear these words as coming to you this morning. Just imagine that these words are coming to you as part of his church today in the year 2025. As a kingdom writer, I want you to hear these words.

Shirley, Sheila, Rhonda, Ellen, Jackie, Patty, D. I won't name all of you.

But it says this. I know all the things that you do. I know all the things that you do.

I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I've seen it.

Nothing gets by my eyes. Jesus says.

I know you don't tolerate evil people. You've examined the claims of those who say they're apostles but are not. You have discovered their liars. You patiently suffered for me without quitting. In other words, on and on Jesus goes, I see all the things that are happening. Do you realize that Jesus said that to all of these six churches in one way, shape or form? He said, I see all the things you do. I know the hard work that you're putting in. I know this and this. And sometimes he did have a complaint. He might say, man, your love's really grown cold. Come back to your first love or I recommend that you do this over here.

Put your attention into this instead of what you've been putting it into. But, you know, in almost every one of these churches, he says, I see all the things that you do. I haven't missed one thing. I've not missed one thing. Shirley. I've not missed one thing. Ann. I've not missed one thing. Beth.

I see it all. Nothing gets by me. You're seen. You're an unseen servant in the world's eyes, but your name is written in heaven. And the angels know your name in heaven as a kingdom writer.

At the end of Paul's letter to the Romans and the first 17 verses of chapter 16, he goes through and lists name after name after name. You know what these people were? They were unseen servants that are now seen. And their names are recognized all these years later because. Because they were written in the Bible. Do you know that your name, my name, won't be written in the Bible, but our names are written in the book in heaven. And that God recognizes you and brags about you. Do you know? And we can almost imagine that our picture is up on God's refrigerator. He sees us daily. He sees your toil. He sees your sweat, your blood, sweat and tears. That what you're writing. And I want to say, kingdom writer, none of it's in vain. You feel like an unseen servant. You feel like, hey, I deserve more. Bring that to the Lord. Just bring it to him and say, oh, Lord, I'm struggling with this. I'm struggling with wanting the same things that the world wants. But, Lord, I know you're the ultimate rewarder. I know your the one that sees everything. Nothing gets by you. And I want to challenge all of us. Oh, myself included, because I battled this.

Can we be content.

Toiling in secret.

Not being written about on Instagram by hundreds of thousands that are going to see it?

Not being on a program that's going to be seen by a million people? Would we be content toiling in secret, just knowing that the only audience that really matters is my father in heaven?

Some of us have had.

That elder brother syndrome.

And it's okay to acknowledge that.

It's okay to say, you know what?

I've essentially cursed other people because I haven't gotten what they've gotten?

You just bring that to the Lord and say, lord.

I'm struggling.

But I lay this before you.

I know you see everything.

And, Lord, I bring you every false motive, everything that would be of the flesh. I lay it before you and I want it crucified, don't want it anymore.

And if my book's never seen by anybody but you.

That'S all that matters.

But if you lay, if you'll lay it before the Lord.

And you say, do with it what you want. Lord.

I do believe that the Lord will put that in the right hands at the right time.

And that more fruit will come about than even the fruit of a New York Times bestseller that Stephen King wrote.

I believe that with all my heart that God's economy is different.

You may not feel seen.

By men, but you're seen by the only one that matters. And that's my challenge for all of us today, is can we be content being an unseen servant.

Without bitterness cropping up and saying, I deserve more? Let God reward you the way he wants to. And I believe you're going to be blown away, if not in this life, in the life to come? And so that's my challenge.

Yes. Why don't you pray for us? CJ.

Oh, Father.

We.

We confess.

We'Ve wanted a big stage.

We want the rewards.

We're appalled.

That something's getting away and that, like Gehazi, we say, we're going to get my I'm going to get mine. One way or the other, I'm going to get it.

I'm going to have, I'm going to be rewarded, even if I have to reward myself. We acknowledge and confess all that, and we say, lord, take it. Dissolve the bitterness in our hearts.

Replace that with contentment, Lord, knowing that you see.

Knowing that you're the only audience that matters.

Help us, Lord, as unseen servants toiling in the background, writing words that we are hoping you use for eternity.

Use us, Lord, however you desire.

Even if it means we don't get any pat on the back by the world.

And yet, Lord, we do see that sometimes you do reward us. Even among men. Men will lift us up and they'll recognize our achievements or they'll say, man, you're doing a great job. And it feels good. It really does. And we're made that way. We're made to just naturally feel good. And it feels good when we then recognize others and we we brag a little bit about others that are doing a great job in private. But, Lord, may ultimately our contentment come through you of just knowing that our heavenly Father sees it all and he's proud of us and he's going to keep aiding us and empowering us to do what he's called us to do.

And, Lord, may we just leave the rewards in your hands.

I pray for each of my fellow Kingdom writers here. Lord, may each of them be content.

And may they be inspired, empowered.

Led by your spirit, knowing that you are doing a wonderful work in and through each of us as we sit down, yield it to you in our writing, our publishing, our marketing, whatever it may be, may we be yielded completely and we ask all this in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. If you're ready to take a step of faith and finally finish your book, we have a few ways we can help you. First of all, you can join our free Writing Week challenge to create a writing habit in just 15 minutes a day. 3 Thousands of writers have taken this over the years and it is incredible the progress that you'll see. So join us@writingweek.com and again, this is completely free. Inside our Book Writing Lab workshop you can choose your book topic, write an outline and create a writing plan in just 90 minutes so you'll finally feel confident that you'll actually finish your book. Get started@bookwritinglab.com and finally you can get more support and personalized feedback from myself and our team by joining Christian Book Academy. Because the honest truth is most writers stay stuck and never finish their first draft. But inside Christian Book Academy, we help you partner with God to write your book so you can become a published author. So finally ditch your self doubt and take a step of faith so so you can finish your book. Join Christian book academy@christianbookacademy.com and get 50% off your first month by using the Coupon code podcast at checkout. There's a special coupon code for our podcast listeners. We love you, so come over to ChristianBookAcademy.com, use the coupon code podcast and we look forward to working closely with you.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom Writers. We believe that you as a Christian writer have a specific role to play in the Kingdom of Heaven to impact lives for eternity.

And because of this, we choose to pour out our lives into encouraging writers like you to not only tell your stories but but to take the courageous step of self publishing your stories in books that will outlive you and leave behind a powerful legacy. This podcast is sponsored by Christian Book Academy where we help you give birth to your books. We invite you to join our community of Kingdom writers.