A Quality Servant

Qualities of a Good Servant

Opening Song Closing Song

Scripture Reading: Mat. 24: 45-51

Objective: to influence members to give all they have to the Christian work. To be dedicated servants of God. Commitment

It was probably a warm sunny afternoon as Abraham sat and considered his legacy. As he reflected on his son he realized that the women in canaan were not the type of woman he would like his son to marry. SO he called for his most trusted and longstanding servant. A man in whom he placed complete trust. The Bible refused to name this man although some have speculated that it might be Eliezer his trusted servant mentioned earlier in the book. But all that is stated about this servant is that he was the eldest servant and that all that Abraham had was in his hands.

This opens to one of the important criteria of a good servant. A good servant must a man that you can trust. The servant was able to chose what gifts he was going to carry and how much. (Gen.24:10) Abraham was not there to oversee what he was taking. He was a man that could be trusted. Here was an opportunity to take as much as he could and run away with it. Remember Gehazi, he saw a way out and he took it. This servant had the opportunity to do the same. But he did not. He could be trusted. He collected Abraham’s possessions in order to carryout the mandate that was given to him.

Are we being trusted servants with the resources God has placed in our hands? Are we using God resources for the task he has given us to do?

God has given us wealth and status, he has endow some of us with special talents and skills but far too often we find it more profitable to run away with God’s resources and use them to further our own pursuits.

How often do we see persons whose singing talents has been nurtured in the church leaving the church as soon as they are able to use these talents for means other than the glory of God.

How often do we see person obtaining jobs and as soon as they do so, prosperity causes they heart to turn away from God?

How often do we see men and women given time on this earth to serve and worship God take the time and use it all for one purpose that is the gratification of self?

It is amazing the lack of commitment we see in the church!!

It is amazing how often, we are ready to give up on a task in the church but we serve the world for a life time, sometimes forty years, fifty years and at the end get a gold watch to measure the time that is left. God is looking for servants like John Wesley who prayed:

John Wesley’s Covenant Prayer

Romans 12:1-2

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,

Exalted for thee or brought low by thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

Thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

Let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

—The United Methodist Hymnal

Men and women whom he can trust with all his resources because he knows they are committed to Him.

Not to the wife;

not to their children;

not to their job but to Him.

Because he well knows that commitment to him bears well for his church and his people.

As Abraham called his servant and give him a task with the resources to carry out that task so to Jesus has given his servants a task and the resources to carry out that task: in

Matt. 28: 18 he speaks to us saying

… All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

In Jh. 16: 23 ... Verily, verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it unto you.

Matthew 18:18,19 Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.