Who Does Christ Want Me To Be? (Series pt1)
CHRIST WANTS YOU TO BE HIS SERVANT
Can you say today of the Lord Jesus Christ and of yourself…
Can you say…….“I AM HIS SERVANT”
If anyone would come to Christ then they MUST call him master…an not only call Him Master but they must Live for Him as Master
What does a servant do?
Servants meet needs…
A servant may do chores such as work in the field
A servant may do house work such as cooking or cleaning
A servant may even care for others in the role of a caretaker or nanny.
Jesus as our master does not ask us to meet His needs (He is God after all) so He does not ask us to meet His needs but He asks us and literally commands us to meet the needs of others.
Meeting the needs of others begins with
Meeting Needs through Caring
When there is genuine caring….there is a genuine concern for an individuals needs.
The problem so often with you and with me and with modern day America is that we become so concerned about having our own needs met that we forget about the deep and important needs of others around us.
We forget about giving service to the needs of others because we are too self absorbed in having our own needs met.
Let’s take a look.
(PLAY MOVIE from Sermonspice.com GET SERVICE- If you want more details email me)
We get so absorbed in our own needs that we forget to look at the needs of others.
And often times if we really take the time to look deep enough we find that many people have needs far deeper than our own.
When we see people’s needs one of two things usually takes place in our hearts either complacency or concern is birthed.
When we recognize a need we will become concerned about the need or we will become complacent to that need.
Complacence – deals with being unconcerned.
…un-interested and therefore uninvolved.
We find a story in 2 Kings chapter 5 that is quite the opposite of complacency.
We find a young servant girl who saw a need and made a decision to be concerned instead of being complacent.
Let’s look at 2 Kings chapter 5 and I want you to see how there is genuine concern and care for the need of others that comes out of the heart of a servant.
1 Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, …but he had leprosy.
2 Now bands from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife.
3 She said to her mistress, "If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy."
4 Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said.
5 "By all means, go," the king of Aram replied. "I will send a letter to the king of Israel." So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing.
In 2 Kings chapter 5 we are introduced to a mighty military leader. His name is Naaman and he was the
commander of the army of the King of Aram,
Yet in all of his military might and valor this glorious general had a gigantic problem….
Verse 1 tells us “he had leprosy”
That terrible deadly and defaming disease.
This Naaman in his many victories had taken advantage of a common war practice of taking captive servants out of the enemies people.
Naaman has acquired a young servant girl and given this servant to meet the needs of his wife.
What becomes evident through this passage is to understand that the little girl who was a servant of Naaman and his wife was in fact also a servant of the living God.
God had filled this little servant girls heart with both faith and genuine concern for others.
The little girl saw the need and she cared deeply enough to want to do something about it.
Now complacency causes us to see something with only superficial sight…. not taking note of the real dangers and difficulties and deficiencies that are present.
Just like the man in the video clip, at first he saw things through a rather complacent set of eyes. He was seeing people without seeing their genuine needs.
True Caring leads to action and belief that something can and must be done
The little servant girl’s words in verse 3
"If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy."
The servant girl had a heart that was filled with care and faith that something could be done.
As we submit ourselves to be God’s servants…we will find God at work in our hearts…
We will find Him moving us to look beyond the superficial to see the deep needs of people around us and to believe that something can be done.
Only a servant heart can respond to people’s needs in the way that Christ truly intends. If you do not have a servant heart then you will miss the joy of caring for others in a way where God uses you to meet needs.
So ask yourself the question this morning?
“How do you I see people?
With complacency or with genuine caring?
Do you as Christ’s servant see the depth of people’s needs and believe that by God’s power something can be done?
If you don’t see that happening in your life you need to ask God to change your heart and give you a servant heart.
The true servant of Christ meets needs through caring.
AND
The true servant of Christ meets needs through Comforting
In the case of Naaman and that servant girl….
she chose caring instead of complacency.
And in John chapter 8 we see that Jesus had a servant heart that chose comforting
Comforting rather than condemning.
Turn to John Chapter 8 in your Bibles.
As your finding John 8 let me introduce you to a friend of mine…Mr. Hamilton.
This is a real 10.00 bill and I am going to give it to someone in this room this morning.
Who wants it?
OK I am still going to give it to one of you but just a moment. (crumple the bill)
OK who wants it now?
I am still going to give it to one of you but just a sec.
(stomp on bill wipe feet)
Who wants this 10.00 bill?
No matter what happened to that bill it was still worth 10.00….. its value didn’t change.
Here is what I want you to understand. We can meet peoples needs by comforting them in letting them know that they are valuable.
We can comfort people by letting them know that even if there life becomes crumpled
Even if their life becomes dirty or stepped on or even torn…
We comfort people by letting them know that their life is still valuable.
Let’s look at John chapter 8
1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.
3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group
4 and (they) said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.
5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?"
6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."
8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.
10Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
11"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."
Meeting needs through comforting means that we can let people know that they have a value to God that does not change.
Just as the value of that 10.00 didn’t change because of what happened to it neither does our value to God change just because of bad things that happened in our life.
God’s plan is never to decrease people’s value but to see every life become more valuable as they turn to Him.
It does not matter what others have said or done.
It does not matter what horrible crime they have committed or how low they have fallen. If a person feels like their life has become dirty or Crumpled up by poor decisions that they have made they need to know that with Jesus Christ that doesn’t matter because they still have immeasurable value and worth.
You might be asking where do I fit in to all of that.
One of two places.
If you are here today and you feel condemned because of low points in your life…things you’ve done or been a part of….you need to know that God does not condemn you. He still loves you and He wants to comfort you and show you a better way.
Secondly if you are here today and you are a follower of Christ….then you are Christ’s servant and the Lord wants to communicate His love to people who feel condemned… by using you …
He wants to use you to send that message of love by comforting broken lives and letting those people know God values them and loves them.
As Christ’s servants we should be meeting needs
Through Caring for others
Through Comforting others and
Through counseling others.
Perhaps no man (other than the Lord Himself) in the Bible gave great counsel such as that man named Solomon.
Solomon in all of his wisdom gave to us the book of Proverbs and in Proverbs 12 and verse 15 we read
15 The way of a fool seems right to him,
but a wise man listens to advice.
A wise man is not known for all of the talking he does but for the correct amount of listening he exercises.
We need to listen to the wise counsel of godly men and women that the Lord places in our path.
None of us have arrived or reached a point where we no longer need to listen for the counsel that God may be putting before us through the lips of others.
Be open to good and godly advice…but then also…
As we are talking about being God’s Servant know that our master ….our Lord wants to use us to offer Counsel to others.
What advice as a follower of Christ does God want me to share with others.
People who are in need often find themselves at a fork in the road ….a place of indecision.
Sometimes a persons need is knowing
“where do I go?”
“What am I supposed to do.”
In 1994 God was calling me to follow Him and to give my life to the ministry.
I believed that God was calling me to get formal education and go to Bible College as part of that call.
I was faced however with a small amount of indecision.
I had a great job.
A wonderful home.
I had a wife and 2 children and one on the way.
How could I possibly leave my job and move away to a place where I knew nothing of the area or the people and take my family and go and serve God.
A man by the name of Lanny Falkner was a good friend and a great influence in those days of my life.
I expressed one evening after a church service to Lanny that I was very concerned about how I would meet my family’s needs if I quit my job, sold my home and moved to a strange place.
Lanny as a servant of God met an important need for me that night by giving to me good godly counsel….
He said “ If the God you serve can’t meet your needs you need to stop serving Him and find a God who can meet your needs.”
Lanny, as God’s servant spoke good counsel to me that evening that encouraged my faith and lead me to take that step and to totally trust God with my situation.
The simple and short words of Lanny that night spoke strongly to my spirit and gave me the direction that I desperately needed.
What words will you speak….?
What is it that you will say to someone who is at a crossroads in their life and they needs direction.
Will you as a humble servant of God be His vessel and allow Him to work through you to bring an answer to peoples needs through good and godly counsel.
Perhaps you’ve never thought about God using you in that sort of way….I assure you that God has someone for all of us that we can at some point and place and time meet an important need through counsel.
The question is are we willing for God to use us in such a way?
Are we willing to truly be God’s servant and to meet the needs of others around us
Through Caring
Through Comforting
And through Holy Spirit lead counseling.
The greatest advice we can offer anyone is that they trust Jesus with anything and everything they are or ever hope to be.
And as we truly trust Jesus in such a way we will discover Him changing our heart from a self-serving heart to a heart that desires and longs to meet the needs of others around us.
Where is your heart this morning?
Is your heart a servant heart….If not won’t you ask God to change your heart to make it His and make it a servant heart for Him.
