Developing a SERVANTS Heart
Mark 10:43-45
INTRO.
This morning, I want to share a message with you in acrostic form about what the are youth are doing today…which is being a SERVANT. As Christians, we have a responsibility to serve (physically and spiritually) - both at home and abroad. If we want for our world to know Jesus like we do, then we need to serve and sacrifice like he did. So let’s look at how we can “Develop a SERVANTS Heart”.
Read Scripture
SERVE others.
ILLUS.
There was a man who worked at the post office whose job was to process all mail that had addresses that couldn’t be read. One day a piece of mail came across his desk, addressed to God in a shaky handwriting. He thought to himself, "I better open this one and see what it’s all about." So he opened it up and it read:
"Dear God, I’m an 83 year old widow living on a very small budget. Yesterday someone stole my purse. It had a hundred dollars in it which was all the money I had until my next retirement check. Without that money, I have nothing to buy food with. I have no family to turn to, and you are my only hope. Can you please help me?"
The postal worker was moved, and went around showing the letter to his co-workers. Each one dug in their wallet and came up with a few dollars. By the time he made his rounds, he had collected 96 dollars, which he put into an envelope and sent to the return address she had left on the envelope.
A few days later, another letter came from the elderly woman once again addressed to God. All the workers gathered around while the letter was opened. It read:
"Dear God, How can I ever thank you for what you did for me? Because of your generosity, I was able to buy the groceries that I need for the month. By the way, there was 4 dollars missing. It have no doubt that it was those thieves over at the post office."
What’s the moral of the story? Even when you do good for others you may not be properly appreciated. Or you may even be accused of doing something wrong! In most cases, however, there’s always a blessing in serving others.
Remember the words of JFK? He said, “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Being a servant means that you understand that God didn’t place the church in the world to serve you, but for you to serve Him and follow His command to serve others!
Colossians 3:23
And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,
While it’s true that a servant should indeed serve others, we need to remember that we only get our orders from the Lord. We should’t get wrapped up in allowing what other people think to interfere with doing what we know is right based on the truth of God’s Word.
Philippians 2:4
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others
A servant has only one agenda: Their heart is advancing the cause of Christ, not seeking how the church can serve their own personal interests.
ILLUS.
Someone once called the pastor of his local church to say that he was interested in joining the church. But, he went on to explain that he didn’t want to: commit to coming to church every week, tithe, or serve in any aspect in the church.
The pastor commended him for his desire to become a member, but told him that the church he was looking for was located in another part of town. The man wrote down the address and hung up.
When the man arrived at the address given to him by the pastor, he came face to face with the reality of his own attitude of not wanting to be involved. Standing before him was an abandoned church building, boarded up and ready for demolition. YOU CAN’T BE A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST WITHOUT BEING A SERVANT, AND YOU CAN’T BE A SERVANT WITHOUT SERVING!
Be an EXAMPLE.
There was once a parrot who lived in a bar. Well the barkeeper decided to sell the bar to a newly planted church looking for a place to meet for worship. So after the bar closed down after it’s last night for business, people came in and redecorated the bar to look like a church. All the while the parrot was asleep. On Sunday morning the parrot woke up and saw the people coming in for church. The parrot squawked, “Same old crowd, just a different look.”
A SERVANT has to be an example to others! Jesus Himself was a servant and he said in…
John 13:15
For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
A father was teaching his son about how a Christian should live their life. When the lesson was over, the son asked something that the father never would forget…”Dad, have I ever met one of these Christians?”
If you ever want to know what kind of example you’re setting, just ask your kids. A recent survey showed that only 39% of teenagers want to grow up to be like their parents.
“Developing a SERVANTS Heart” means that you lead by example.
How can you lead others to pray if you don’t pray?
How can you lead others to tithe if you don’t tithe?
How can you lead others to be kind if you’re not kind?
Maybe your kids are grown and gone, then be an example to your grandkids. Maybe you don’t have kids, then find someone else in the community who would benefit from a mentor. My point is this: Every Timothy needs a Paul, and in the same way, every Paul needs a Timothy. BE AN EXAMPLE!
REACH the lost.
Luke 19:10
for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Here we see the main reason that Jesus came to earth. We need to keep the main thing the main thing! God is relentless in His pursuit of finding lost people and so should we.
In the movie Taken, Liam Neeson plays a former CIA operative who is determined to track down his teenage daughter after she's been kidnapped by human traffickers while on a trip with a friend in France. In one scene, Neeson talks to his daughter's abductor after he's retrieved a cell phone left behind at the crime scene. Neeson states his clear intent to seek and save his daughter as he tells the abductor:
“I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want …. I can tell you I don't have money; but, what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills that I've acquired over a very long career, skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that will be the end of it. I will not look for you. I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you and I will kill you.”
It's clear that Neeson is willing to pay whatever price necessary to find his only daughter. After overcoming numerous thugs and villains, Neeson finally finds his daughter on a yacht, when she collapses into her father's arms and says, "Daddy, you came for me!" Bloody, beaten, but ultimately triumphant, Neeson holds his daughter as he quietly says, "I told you I would."
Neeson's character gives us a glimpse of God's relentless pursuit of us. He refuses to give up on us. If it weren’t for his unfailing love, we would still be lost, without hope and without a way to save ourselves. Because God has pursued us, we should join him in pursuing others.
VALUE God’s Word.
If you ever want to know just how much you value the Word of God then just look at the decisions that you make on a day to day basis. Jesus said in…
John 8:31
“If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.
A married couple decided that they needed to do something to strengthen their relationship so they chose to go duck hunting. They had heard that you needed a good hunting dog so they went out and got one. They got all their equipment and their dog and off they went. Well, as they neared the end of the day they still hadn’t killed any ducks. The husband looked over at his wife and said, “Honey, we must be doing something wrong.”
The wife said, “Well, maybe if we throw the dog up a little higher, he will catch a duck this time.”
That’s what a lot of us are doing. We’re trying to get a dog to do what a gun was meant to do. We’re trying to accomplish things in our lives with tools that don’t work or don’t make sense. We come across problems and we turn to our friends, we turn to our family…so it’s not that we’re not trying. The problem is what we’re trying.
We have to value the Word of God above everything else. Above our feelings, above our opinions, above our comforts, above advice we receive from others. It has to be the foundation from which we build all of our decisions.
ADORE God in worship.
This is where a lot of us mess up. We think that worship is about us. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people talk about how they’re struggling in their worship life. As a matter of fact I counseled with someone this past week…they said, “Bro. Chris, I’m just not getting anything out of my time at church. God’s not speaking to me. I’m not growing in my relationship with Christ.”
Well, that’s a legitimate concern for that person. But what concerns me is that I
never, ever hear people say anything about whether or not God is being glorified in the worship service. I never hear anyone concerned about whether or not God is enjoying worship.
Would Jesus walk into a Sunday morning church service and be pleased, or would he be more likely to tell everyone to leave and go do what the youth are doing right now…that is, being a SERVANT.
Our primary purpose of worship ought to be so that GOD can get something out of it. Until God gets something out of our worship, we never will. Until God is blessed by our worship, we won’t be blessed.
NETWORK with other believers.
Hebrews 10:24-25
And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
This verse is talking about fellowshipping with other believers, networking. However, in the N.T., fellowship didn’t mean what it means to us today. It’s not referring to a potluck. Fellowship in the N.T. basically means sharing and self-sacrifice with other believers, it means being a SERVANT. You want to know what happened as a result of “fellowship” in the NT? They grew! A SERVANT spends time actively building relationships with other believers through not only mutual encouragement, but also sharing and self-sacrifice.
THRIVE in prayer.
James 5:15-16
And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses[a] to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
It’s through prayer that we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Through prayer we see God’s wisdom; it gives us access to His power. Prayer relieves stress; reveals God’s agenda for our lives.
Serve others.
Be an Example.
Reach the lost.
Value God’s Word.
Adore God in worship.
Network with other believers.
Thrive in prayer.
“I used to think that God's gifts were on shelves one above the other and that the taller we grew in Christian character, the more easily we should reach them. I find now that God's gifts are on shelves one beneath the other and that is not a question of growing taller, but of stooping lower and that we have to go down, always down to get His best ones.”
― F.B. Meyer
