Servanthood
Matthew 20:28, Luke 1:68-75, 1 Pet 4:10, 1 Corinthians 13 :1-3, Mark 9:35
August 19, 2003
I. Another thing that we have to realize as Christians is that servanthood is at the top of the list of things that we are to develop, but it doesn’t just apply to being a Christian, it applies to being a person and it surely applies to being a leader.
A. There’s a principle that applies to every area of a person’s life, that can’t be ignored, and it surely applies to being a leader of anything. TO GET AHEAD PUT OTHERS FIRST.
B. Eugene Habecker says, " The true leader serves. Serves People. Serves their best interest, and in so doing will not always be popular, may not always impress. But because true leaders are motivated by loving concern rather than desire for personal glory, they are willing to pay the price.
C. John Maxwell says it this way, You’ve got to love your people more than your position."
D. Not long ago Americans got to know another American better. His name is General Norman H. Schwarzkopf. He showed great leadership ability in leading the troops in the Persian Gulf War, just like he had done throughout his military career beginning at West Point.
E. In Vietnam he turned a battalion that was a shambles around. They were a part of the Sixth Infantry, and they were known as "the worst of the Sixth." Under his leadership that Battalion became an effective fighting force and were selected for some of the most difficult missions.
F. One of those became the place that Schwarzkopf called " a horrible and malignant place." It was called the Batangan Peninsula. It was a place that had been fought over for thirty years, and was the site of numerous weekly injuries from mines and bobby traps.
G. Schwarzkopf made the best of a bad situation, introduced procedures to reduce causalities, and when a man was injured he flew out in his chopper, had the man evacuated in his chopper, and talked to the men there to boost their morale.
H. On May 28, 1970, a man was injured by a mine and Schwarzkopf flew to the man’s location. While the helicopter was evacuating the wounded man another man stepped on a mine, severely injuring his leg. The man thrashed around on the ground wailing and screaming. That’s when they realized that the first mine, was not the only one and they were standing in the middle of a mine field.
I. Schwarzkopf realized that the man could be saved and even keep his leg, but he had to be kept still. There was only one thing he could do and that was go after him. .
J. He later wrote"I started through the mine field, one slow step at a time, staring at the ground, looking for tell tale bumps or prongs sticking from the dirt. My knees were shaking so hard that each time a took a step, I had to grab my leg and steady it with both hands, before I could take another...It seemed like a thousand years before I reached the kid."
K. Two hundred and Forty pound Schwarzkopf who had been a wrestler at West Point, pinned the man to the ground and it saved his life. With the help of and engineering team Schwarzkopf got him and the others out of the mine field.
L. The quality the Schwarzkopf showed that day could be called heroism, courage, or even foolishness, but the best word for it is servanthood. On that day in May the only way that he could be an effective leader was to serve the injured soldier who was in trouble.
M. When we think of servant hood we think of something done by relatively low skilled people at the bottom of the ladder. If that is the way that you feel you couldn’t be more wrong.
N. Or you have just met people who have bad attitudes about servanthood. Like a rude worker at a government office, a waiter who can’t be bothered with taking your order, or a store clerk who talks to a friend on the phone instead of helping you.
O. As much as you can sense when a worker doesn’t want to help people, you can easily recognize whether a leader has a servants heart.
P. The truth is that the best leaders first priority is to serve others and not themselves.
II. What does it mean to have the qualities of servanthood, and be a true servant leader?
A. A TRUE SERVANT LEADER, PUTS OTHERS AHEAD OF THEIR OWN AGENDA.
1. One of the first marks of servant hood is to be able to put others ahead of YOURSELF and you personal DESIRES.
2. It is more than being willing to put your agenda on hold. It means intentionally being aware of people’s NEEDS, being AVAILABLE to help them, and able to accept their desires as IMPORTANT.
3. Being a servant means putting the needs of others ahead of your own desires.
B. A TRUE SERVANT LEADER, POSSESSES THE CONFIDENCE TO SERVE.
1. The real heart of servant hood is SECURITY .
2. Show me some one who thinks that they are too important to serve and I’ll show you someone that is basically INSECURE.
3. How we treat others is really a reflection of how we think about OURSELVES.
4. Eric Hoffer puts it well, "The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as we love ourselves; we do unto to others as we do unto ourselves. We are tolerant toward others as we are tolerant toward ourselves. We forgive others as we forgive ourselves. It is not the love of self but the hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict our world."
5. What he is saying is that we can’t love others the way we should unless we are able to love our self to the extent that we can be at peace with who we are.
6. If we try to control others it is usually because we don’t feel that we are in control of ourselves. If we don’t like others it is usually because we don’t like ourselves. If we feel that we are less than others we can’t be servants, because we are to busy trying to prove that we don’t have to be.
7. Remember when I said that we can’t give what we don’t have? If we don’t love who we are we can’t show that love to others, and we can’t be the leaders that we are supposed to be.
C. A TRUE SERVANT LEADER, INITIATES SERVICE TO OTHERS.
1. A lot people will serve if someone asks them to, and others will serve in a crisis, but you can really see the heart of someone, who looks for ways to SERVE.
2. Great leaders see the need, grab the opportunity, and serve without expecting anything in RETURN.
3. As Christians we are all bound to serve others because we have been given the greatest example of a servant leader in Jesus.
(Mat 20:28 NIV) just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
4. Jesus was the greatest leader that the world has ever seen, and He was the one person that has ever walked this earth, that had a right to claim superiority over the others around Him, but he didn’t.
5. He took on the role of a servant, and gave of Himself to serve others to the point of sacrificing His life.
6. That is the example that we are to follow as Christians, and especially as leaders.
(Luke 1:68 - 75 NIV) "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us--to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
(1 Pet 4:10 NIV) Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.
7. It should be the ultimate goal of every Christian not to try to prove that they’re better than others, but to try to out serve them because our savior and leader gave us the ultimate example of what a leader, and a Christian should be, and that is a servant of other people .
8. In trying to start care groups, part of what we are doing is creating a means by which every member of this church can be what God has said that we are to be and that is someone who serves others and ministers to others, and I hope that you will get involved in your groups and serve others with what God has given you.
9. As leaders in your family and at work, and in this body that God calls a church, I hope that you will realize, your greatest accomplishment is to serve God and others.
D. A TRUE SERVANT LEADER, IS NOT POSITION-CONSCIOUS.
1. Servant leaders don’t focus on rank or position. When Norman Schwarzkopf stepped into that mine field, rank was the last thing on his mind.
2. He was, at that point, just one person trying to help another, and if anything, being a leader gave him a greater sense of obligation to serve.
3. As Christians we should even more have that sense of obligation because everything we have including our gifts and abilities are things that have been GIVEN to us by God..
4. We have no right to brag about what we have and what we can do or to feel that we are above anyone else, but we do have an obligation to serve God, and others with what we have been given.
E. A TRUE SERVANT LEADER, SERVES OUT OF LOVE.
1. Servanthood is NOT motivated by manipulation or self-promotion
2. Servanthood is FUELED by love.
3. As leaders and especially as Christians, in the end, the extent of your influence depends on the depth of your love and concern for others.
4. If people love you they will FOLLOW you, if people follow you, then you are bound by God to SERVE them and see to their best interest.
(1 Cor 13:1-3 NIV) If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
5. As Christians everything that we do is to be motivated by love, and we can’t love people that way that we are suppose to if we are not willing to serve them and give of ourselves and make their best interest our top priority.
6. To be a leader in our family, where we work, and especially in our service to God, we have got to love others enough to commit ourselves to serving others.
F. So what are some questions that we can ask ourselves to evaluate our attitude toward service?
1. Where is your HEART when it comes to serving others?
2. Do you want to become a leader for the perks or benefits, or are you motivated by a desire to help OTHERS?
3. How many people have you contacted that have not been here in a while to let them know that you LOVE them and miss them?
4. How INVOLVED have you been in your care group?
5. What is first on your priority list: your schedule, how busy you are, what you want to accomplish, how much recognition you get, how much money you make, or where people spend eternity, and how much you can be a part of seeing them come to KNOW and SERVE God?
6. If you really want to be the kind of leader that God intended you to be you have to settle the issue of SERVANTHOOD.
G. If your attitude is to be served rather than serve, you are headed for trouble and you will not find all that you are intended to find in your relationship with God. So take this advice.
1. Stop LORDING over people and start LISTENING to people.
2. Stop ROLE playing for advancement, and start RISKING for others’ benefit.
3. Stop seeking your own WAY and start SERVING others.
4. Stop letting you own agenda DRIVE you, and Start letting God USE you to make a difference in the lives of others by SERVING them.
(Mark 9:35 NIV) Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."
H. To improve your servanthood do the following:
1. Perform SMALL acts. When was the last time that you went out of your way to perform small acts of kindness for others?
a. Start with those closest to you and : Your spouse, children, and parents, find ways today to show others that you care.
2. Learn to walk SLOWLY through he crowd..
a. When you are in a crowd of people, or at a gathering of people, make it your goal to connect with as many of them as possible, by talking to them.
b. Focus on each person that you talk to, if you don’t know it already learn their name. Get to know them well enough to know what their needs are.
c. Then when you go home make a list of ways that you can do something for at least a half a dozen of those people.
3. Move into ACTION.
a. If an attitude of servanthood is absent from your life, the best way to change it is to start SERVING.
b. We have care groups in our church that are there to see that others are cared for. If you are a leader of a group then get busy serving the people in your group.
c. If you are a member of a group get in touch with the leader of your group today and ask them what you can do to help, and see that the people in your group are taken care of.
d. And then serve, make a commitment to putting an effort into serving others in your group for six weeks, if at the end of six week your attitude toward serving others hasn’t changed make a commitment for another six weeks.
III. Albert Schweitzer wisely said, " I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: The ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve."
A. If you want to LEAD on the highest level, be willing to SERVE on the lowest.
B. I hope that today you will make a commitment to yourself and before God and others to serve God by serving others. I hope that you will get involved in helping others grow in their relationships to God and learn to serve Him too.
C. I hope that you will make a commitment to get involved in reaching others for God, and that you will get involved in your care group here and start serving by loving others enough to put their needs and there knowing God above your agenda.
(Mat 20:28 NIV) just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
(1 Pet 4:10 NIV) Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.
(1 Cor 13:1-3 NIV) If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
(Mark 9:35 NIV) Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."
D. I hope that today you will take the time to listen to God, and yourself. Be honest with yourself, and ask yourself a question. Have been the servant that I should be?
1. Have my actions and priorities showed that servanthood is a priority in my life?
2. Do I put the needs of others ahead of my own desires?
E. If you are honest with yourself and you come up with several no answers, then I hope that today you will come get before God, and make a commitment to make serving others a priority in life.
