Luke 12: Keep Your Flame Burning Until the Master Returns

Introduction

"Maybe this morning, there are people among us who tend to slow down a little, because maybe you are tired, because there is so much going on in your lives, in your families." With these words, Samy Muzart, guest pastor at the Assemblée de Dieu de Nice Ariane, opens his message on the parable of the servants waiting for their master, in Luke 12:35-40.

At 90 years old, he still preaches. "Yes, I am a little tired," he admits, but he proclaims the word of God "because it is true." His message comes down to one conviction: the priority is to follow and serve the Lord, and as for the rest, finances, material needs and every other area, "he will take care of it."

Throughout the passage, he speaks about the belt around the waist, the flame that must be fed, the watchman who stays alert, Deborah who woke up the people, and the zeal to keep until the end.

Message Outline

1. A Parable for Disciples Who Put It into Practice

• Jesus took his parables from everyday life, and he explained their meaning to his disciples so that they would understand what he expected of them.
• The preacher recalls the words of Jesus after the washing of the feet: "If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them" (John 13:17). That is where the Lord waits for us: in the practice of the truth.
• The passage read runs from verse 35 to verse 44: the belts fastened and the lamps burning, the servants whom the master finds watching, the thief who comes at an hour when no one expects him, and then the faithful and wise steward whom the master puts in charge of all his possessions.
• Peter asks: "Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?" (Luke 12:41) In another Gospel, Jesus says: "What I tell you, I tell everyone" (Mark 13:37). This concerns everyone who is a disciple and walks with the Lord.

2. A Belt Around Your Waist: the Same Flame as on the First Day

• Remember the day you turned to the Lord, the day you committed to follow him through baptism. God gave you the Holy Spirit, a power to speak to others with confidence, like the apostles before the Sanhedrin: "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).
• To those who have not received the baptism of the Spirit: "Ask for it, because God wants to give it to you." The Father gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask him (Luke 11:13).
• When a representative speaks with confidence, people tend to listen. If he speaks without confidence, people think he is not even convinced himself. The same is true of our testimony.
• In the old days, people pulled up and tied their long robes so they could walk well, run well and work. Over time, we grow weary because we see few results. But Jesus himself did not bring the whole people to faith, despite the miracles and the raising of Lazarus. Some leaders believed without saying so, because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God (John 12:42-43).
• In spiritual terms, to have your belt fastened means that "the same flame that lived in my heart when I turned to the Lord, when I was born again, still lives in me now." It means having a heart ready to wait for the Lord at his coming.
• And if you wonder what to do: "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it" (Ecclesiastes 9:10), in the work for God, by helping others and showing them the love of Jesus. The mouth speaks from the abundance of the heart (Luke 6:45).

3. Comfort, a Trap That Seems Harmless

• People talk a lot about the return of the Lord because of wars, rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes. "Let's not wait for things to get worse before we speak about what the Lord has put in our hearts."
• There is sin, of course. But there is also comfort, which leads to spiritual laziness: "Thank you, Lord, I have an apartment. Thank you, Lord, I have a car. Thank you, Lord, I have a good pension." God's grace has been upon you, but you need to share it with others. Around you, people are in distress, even if they will not admit it.
• We sow, and we also reap what others have sown: "You have entered into their labor" (John 4:38). We must keep working as we did on the day of our conversion.
• Excess, sin and the worries of life can take up too much room in the heart. One day, you tell yourself: "I don't have that flame anymore." Why? "Because I did not feed that flame."
• For a fire of embers, you add wood and leave a little space so that oxygen can revive the flames. We need the Word, we need to speak to souls, and we need the Holy Spirit who helps us.

4. Watching Like a Sentinel

• The preacher tells of a fall: while walking around his son's car, he did not see the curb, his head hit a wall and the curb, and there was blood everywhere. The scan showed nothing: "God really kept me safe." The firefighter who came to the scene could not understand how he could still walk after such a blow. For him, it is a sign that God protects us when we work for him.
• We will have tribulations, but Jesus said: "Cheer up! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). In following Jesus, we follow a victor, and we become victors by making his word our own in difficulties and temptations.
• He prefers to pray "do not let us give in to temptation," because "he himself tempts no one" (James 1:13). Temptation comes from the adversary and from our own flesh, and we fight it by leaning on the word of God.
• He loves the book of Habakkuk, where the prophet takes his stand like a watchman (Habakkuk 2:1). A sentinel keeps eyes and ears open in the night. Close your eyes for a moment in the dark, then open them again: you will see more clearly than before.
• The word "watch" comes up three times in the passage. The Lord will come like a thief, at a time when no one expects him, like those fake agents in uniform who come to "check the meter": while one distracts you, the other searches the house. If we keep watch, we do not let our house, that is, our heart, be broken into.
• Noah built the ark for a hundred years, the preacher says, amid mockery. When the rain kept falling, it was too late: God was the one who had shut the door (Genesis 7:16). Today, the door of grace is open. "Today if you will hear his voice, don't harden your hearts" (Hebrews 3:15). God speaks through songs, preaching, spiritual gifts, a brother, a sister, and sometimes even through an unbeliever.
• Lot tormented his soul day after day (2 Peter 2:7-8). "Let's not waste our time satisfying our desires." We must fight the world, its lusts and our "guilty greed." The preacher tells how he bought a nice chronograph watch, then heard an inner voice: "Do you need that? You already have a watch." He asked forgiveness and took it back to the store.

5. Deborah, the Bee Who Woke Up the People

• The time of the judges is the era when everyone did what seemed right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25). Deborah, whose name means "bee," is an example for him: a bee works.
• A prophetess, she sees the people in distress and the enemy at the gates. She sings: in the days of Shamgar and Jael, the roads were abandoned, the leaders in Israel had no strength, until she, Deborah, arose, arose as a mother in Israel (Judges 5:6-9).
• "She did not accept defeat." Do not accept staying in between either, without strength and without energy: get on your knees and ask for renewal. Those who trust in Yahweh renew their strength, they run and do not grow weary (Isaiah 40:29-31).
• "We find an excuse for everything. Oh, I am tired." We also get tired for our jobs. God chose the night to renew our strength, and to serve him we ask for his grace. The preacher hands out flyers, saying: "The one this flyer is about is the Lord Jesus, and he is the one who changed my life."
• He tells the story of a Christian woman who handed out Gideons New Testaments at the hospital. One day, she gave one to a young medical intern, without being able to talk to him. A year later, he came back: "You are the one, ma'am, who gave me this New Testament." He had read it, and he turned to the Lord. Today bedridden, she confides to the preacher that in her low moments, she prays to the Lord and he comes to her aid.
• Deborah led the people to believe that the living and true God could give victory over a larger enemy, and the land had rest for forty years (Judges 5:31). The preacher testifies: when he drags his shopping cart up to the second floor, he asks God for strength, and God gives it to him.
• The enemy is not your brother, not your sister, not the unbeliever: it is the adversary. And our worst enemy? "It is our own nature, our own ego." "Be subject therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). What the devil fears is the word of God and the Holy Spirit who live in you.

6. Loving, Listening and Telling the Works of God

• Jesus was asked: "What must we do, that we may work the works of God?" (John 6:28-29). For the preacher, the answer is to believe in the one the Father sent and to love one another. Without a heart transformed by grace, we cannot love. We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).
• He usually gets up between 6 and 7 a.m. to stand in God's presence, praise him and thank him: for his salvation, his name written in the book of life, his wife still alive, food, the apartment, the congregation.
• Elsewhere, gathering like this leads to forced labor or death, as in North Korea, Somalia, Yemen or Iran. An Iranian brother who fled his country was recently baptized. Women are thrown out on the street by their own parents because they belong to the Lord, and God's grace sustains them.
• At the baptism of Jesus, the Father says: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). At the transfiguration, he adds: "Listen to him." (Matthew 17:5). "To listen, in the mind of the Lord, is not only to hear, it is, after hearing, to put into practice."
• Tell how God saved you. You do not know the private life of the person in front of you, but God does. One detail of your testimony can touch their heart: "People are sometimes touched by a single word."

7. The Same Zeal to the End

• Hebrews 6:11-12: "We desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fullness of hope even to the end, that you won't be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherit the promises."
• Like love at the beginning of a marriage, zeal can fade. You renew it with gifts, gentleness, a kind word, by taking your spouse's opinion into account. Children watch us and listen to us, and an outburst of anger can shock them deeply.
• "Before, I was harder on my wife. Now, no, that is over." This mutual love "is the cement of marriage, it is the cement of the family."
• When he gives his testimony, his hope is renewed. One day when no one responded, he said: "Apparently there is nobody, but it does me good." It is by believing with the heart that we reach righteousness, and by confessing with the mouth that we reach salvation (Romans 10:10). The one who made the promise is faithful.
• Be a sentinel who keeps watch at his post and fills the gap. Ecclesiastes 11 says: "Cast your bread on the waters, for you shall find it after many days." The bread is the word of God. Jesus said: "The night is coming, when no one can work" (John 9:4). One day, we may no longer be able to gather or work as we do today.
• "In the morning, sow your seed, and in the evening don't withhold your hand, for you don't know which will prosper" (Ecclesiastes 11:6). Some will not listen, others will listen, others will follow the Lord. Sow this word in love, so "that people feel that when you speak to them, you love them."
• He concludes by praying for those who are "no longer as before," who have become a little lukewarm: may God renew their strength, he who works in us both to will and to act (Philippians 2:13).

Key Takeaways

• The priority is to follow and serve the Lord. As for the rest, he takes care of it.
• To have your belt fastened is to keep the same flame as on the day of your conversion. A flame needs feeding: the Word, testimony and the Holy Spirit.
• Comfort and the worries of life lead to spiritual laziness. What God has given you is meant to be shared.
• To watch is to guard your heart like a sentinel, resist greed and not harden your heart while the door is open.
• Like Deborah, refuse defeat: ask God to renew your strength and keep sowing his word in love to the very end.

Personal Application

1. Is the flame that lived in you on the day of your conversion still burning? If it has dimmed, what have you stopped giving it?
2. What comfort, what worry or what desire takes up too much room in your heart today?
3. What excuse do you use to stop serving the Lord, and what would it look like to ask for his strength instead?
4. Whom could you tell this week what God has done in your life?
5. In your marriage and your family, how can you renew love through a gesture, a gentle word or a kind remark?

Verses Cited

• Luke 12:35-44
• John 13:17
• Mark 13:37
• Acts 5:29
• Luke 11:13
• John 12:42-43
• Ecclesiastes 9:10
• Luke 6:45
• John 4:35-38
• John 16:33
• James 1:13
• Habakkuk 2:1
• Genesis 7:16
• Hebrews 3:15
• 2 Peter 2:7-8
• Judges 21:25
• Judges 5:6-9
• Isaiah 40:29-31
• Judges 5:31
• James 4:7
• John 6:28-29
• 1 John 4:19
• Matthew 3:17
• Matthew 17:5
• Hebrews 6:11-12
• Romans 10:10
• Ecclesiastes 11:1-6
• John 9:4-5
• Philippians 2:13

Frequently Asked Questions

What does it mean to have your belt fastened in Luke 12:35?

In those days, people wore long robes that they pulled up and tied at the waist in order to work, walk or run. For Samy Muzart, in spiritual terms, this means that the same flame that lived in your heart on the day of your conversion still lives in you today, and that your heart is ready to wait for the Lord at his coming.

What danger awaits the Christian who is waiting for the Lord's return?

The preacher mentions sin, but he stresses a trap that seems harmless: comfort. It leads to spiritual laziness. We thank God for the apartment, the car, the pension or the family, without sharing with others what he has given us. The worries of life can also take up too much room in the heart and put out the flame.

Why is Deborah an example for today?

In the time of the judges, the roads were abandoned and the leaders had no strength (Judges 5:6-9). Deborah did not accept defeat. She woke up the people with prophetic messages and led them to believe that God could give victory. Samy Muzart draws a call from this: do not stay in apathy, but ask God to renew your strength.