Growing In The Lord Committed To Serve

Growing in the Lord Committed to Serve

Deuteronomy 10:12

And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

We need to understand that when we are committed to serve we are put in the position of a servant. Some of us may find that hard to do or be, but if we want to grow in the Lord we have to be: 1) a servant, 2) committed to that service.

A servant is a person who is under submission to another. For Christians, this means submission to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Being in submission, a servant seeks to meet the real needs of or carry out the will of the person he is serving. In the Greek New Testament there are two words for servant, "Doulos" and "Diakonos". Diakonos is where we get the word “Deacon”. Doulos is a term that generally means a servant that is under submission but not in bondage. Doulos referred to a slave who after serving for a period of time as a slave and is given the opportunity to either gain their freedom or choose to remain in service to their master. They were known as bondservants. Believers are called to be the servants (bondservants) of the Lord, and that means that we choose to stay in service to the Lord, for life. Talk about being committed!

Let us consider some characteristics or qualities of a servant of the Lord.

A servant growing in the Lord is one who:

1. Loyal to the Lord

a. “Let your heart therefore be loyal to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and keep His commandments, as at this day.” 1 Kings 8:61

b. An essential element to Christian service is loyalty to the King, the Lord Jesus Christ.

c. “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Matthew 6:24

i. So that we remain clear the word “mammon” refers to earthly riches. As used here in Matthew it is treated as a personification of riches. So then, this scripture looks at our commitment to serve the Lord, or our commitment to serve earthly riches, being viewed as if they were a person.

ii. There is nothing wrong with being rich, but does those riches take a life of their own and have you serving them rather than have the riches serve you? Let that sink in for a moment…are you scrambling to make more money for the sake of earthly pleasures, or are you content with what you have, using it as the Lord intended.

iii. Just prior to the 2006 Christmas season, Larry Stewart, fifty-eight, a successful businessman from Lee's Summit, Missouri, revealed that he was the Secret Santa who has been doling out hundred-dollar bills to the needy every Christmas for the past twenty-six years. Stewart said he decided to go public after it became apparent that a tabloid newspaper was going to reveal his name. Now he hopes to inspire others to become Secret Santa’s.

In the winter of 1971, Stewart was working as a door-to-door salesman, when the company he was working for went out of business. Stewart quickly ran out of money. He hadn't eaten in two days when he went to Dixie Diner and ordered a breakfast he eventually admitted he couldn't pay for. Ted Horn, the restaurant owner, acted like he found a twenty-dollar bill on the floor underneath Stewart's chair. "Son, you must have dropped this," Horn said.

"It was like a fortune to me," Stewart said. His response was to vow, "Lord, if you ever put me in a position to help other people, I will do it."

Over the years, Stewart estimates that he has given away about $1.3 million, for which he has been amply rewarded. "I see looks of hopelessness turn to looks of hope in an instant," he says. "After all, isn't that what we're put here on earth for — to help one another?"

iv. Here we see two persons who were committed to serve the Lord with the monetary gifts the Lord bestowed upon them

d. Jesus demands that our love and our loyalty for Him be greater than any and all other attachment we may have, including our families. Anything that gets between our loyalty to Christ and real obedience to Him is nothing more than idolatry. Our loyalty to Christ must take precedence over anything else. Following Christ must be our highest priority.