During worship this morning the Lord spoke two words to me…Allegiance and Alliance.  I couldn’t help but do a quick Google search to find the precise definition for it, so if my pastor is reading this, I should probably say sorry for getting a little distracted but I’m not really sorry.  Actually, when he started preaching the sermon confirmed very much what the Lord was saying to me.  This morning’s sermon was all about the heart and his question to us was whether we were serving the Lord with ALL our hearts.

Before I get into what I want to share, some definitions to get the ball rolling:

Allegiance:  the obligation of a feudal vassal to his liege lord, the fidelity owed by a subject or citizen to a sovereign or government, loyalty or devotion

Liege lord:  a feudal lord entitled to  allegiance and service

Feudal:  a type of social and political system in which landholders provide land to tenants in exchange for their loyalty and service.

Alliance:  an arrangement between two or more people, groups or countries, by which they agree to work together to achieve a common goal

In these definitions we see words that have become almost obsolete in our modern vernacular.  The terms “feudal” and “liege lord” don’t get mention much and very few people uphold these principles.  Very few citizens has an allegiance to their government and most people certainly don’t hold to the premise that they owe fidelity, loyalty or devotion to their sovereign or government.  

In our day and age alliances are fragile too.  Friendships, business partnerships and even marriage contracts are entered into with the “what’s in it for me?” mindset.  When it doesn’t work for me, when my interest isn’t served, the alliance is broken regardless of whether the goal we were working towards have been achieved or not.

As Christians we have a Liege Lord.  Jesus, as our feudal lord, owner of everything we see, gave us a tenancy.  God placed us on earth to rule and reign is His stead.  Jesus is the landowner who provides us with land to occupy and to tend and in return we owe Him our loyalty, our devotion and our service.  The Bible tells us we were bought at a price, that we do not belong to ourselves, our bodies (and our lives) are not our own and because we belong to the Lord, we honour and obey Him.  We are citizens of heaven, we have a sovereign, a King who is entitled to our allegiance because He paid dearly for us.  

Colossians 1 verse 13 tells us what God has done for us…”For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son”.  We once were citizens of the kingdom of darkness, but now we are citizens of the Kingdom of Light, we were once ruled by Satan, but now we are children of God and we serve the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.  This is where our allegiance should be, to the One who rescued us, the One who is entitled to our worship, our loyalty and our devoted service on account of the cross He bore for us.

So we have to examine ourselves and see where our alliance is.  Are we working with Jesus towards a common goal…to see the kingdom come, here on earth as it is in heaven, or are we still living with one foot in the world?  Matthew 6:24 says “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.”  
Even though the context of the scripture is the love of money, I believe the principle applies to everything that is in competition with our love for the Lord.  We cannot serve the Lord and serve our own purpose, our fleshly desires or our own ambition.  We have to choose where our alliance lies.

In Deuteronomy 11, verses 13 to 17 we read:

 13 “It shall come about, if you listen obediently and pay attention to My commandments which I command you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul [your choices, your thoughts, your whole being]— 14 that He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early [fall] rain and the late [spring] rain, so that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your [olive] oil. 15 And He will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied. 16 Beware that your hearts are not deceived, and that you do not turn away [from the Lord] and serve other gods and worship them, 17 or [else] the Lord’s anger will be kindled and burn against you, and He will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the land will not yield its fruit; and you will perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

It is clear that there are rewards for our obedience to the Lord, and consequences for  rebellion against Him.  The principle of sowing and reaping is a very real thing.  For the one sowing to his own flesh, from the flesh will reap decay. But the one sowing to the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Gal. 6:8)

The Passion Translation puts it like this:  The harvest you reap reveals the seed that you planted. If you plant the corrupt seeds of self-life into this natural realm, you can expect a harvest of corruption. If you plant the good seeds of Spirit-life you will reap beautiful fruits that grow from the everlasting life of the Spirit.

I will let Joshua have the last word on allegiance and alliance…”But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”  (Joshua 24:15)