So You Want To Be A Servant? Series

S101302 So you want to be a servant! Matthew 8:14

Beginning:

Marion Mill was born in a fairy tale royal palace in Hungary. Her first spoon was solid gold. They sent her to school in Vienna where she became an actress, and there she met and fell in love with a young medical student named Otto.

Otto and Marion married and went to live in Hollywood, CA. There, as they “set up house,” he began to dabble in movies. He became so interested in movies that he gave up his medical practice, and went on to become the internationally famed movie director Otto Preminger. Marion’s beauty, wit, and irresistible charm brought her everything a woman desires. In Europe, New York and Hollywood she became a famous international hostess.

But Otto’s princess could not handle the fast life of Hollywood. She went into alcohol, drugs and numerous affairs. Her life and lifestyle became so sordid, even for Hollywood, that Otto Preminger divorced Marion. She tried to take her own life three times, unsuccessfully, and finally moved back to Vienna.

There at a party she met another doctor, named Albert Schweitzer, the well-known medical doctor, musician, philosopher, theologian and missionary. Schweitzer was home on leave from his hospital in Lambarene, Africa.

She was so fascinated by Schweitzer, that she asked him if she could talk to him alone, and he permitted that. For almost six months, every week, she met with Dr. Albert Schweitzer. At the end of that time he was going to go back to Africa, and she begged him to let her go with him. Schweitzer surprised everyone by agreeing. Marion, the young princess, who was born in a palace went to a little village in Lambarene, Africa, and spent the rest of her life emptying bed pans and tearing up sheets to make bandages for putrid sores on the poverty-stricken nationals.

She wrote her autobiography. All I Want is Everything. When she died, Time Magazine quoted from her autobiography these words: “Albert Schweitzer says there are two kinds of people. There are the helpers, and the non-helpers. I thank God He allowed me to become a helper, and in helping, I found everything.

What kind of person are you? Are you a helper or a non-helper? I believe that everyone of you here desires to be a true servant of Christ

Burden

Most people wish to serve God—but in an advisory capacity only. The person who lives figuratively with a towel over their arm is the person who is nearest the heart of God. If it all has to be about you, life may never make sense and you will never find satisfaction in anything.

Background

The greatest teacher who ever lived is about to open His lecture notes and lead a Masters class in discipleship. This is not a 100 series study. Jesus will teach through several life episodes that following Jesus requires one live with a towel over your arm. Christian discipleship is never complete until the Christ follower learns to become a servant

Basic Truth Living as a servant offers the greatest joy one can experience in this life.

Burning Question Why should I want to live my life as a servant?

Because servants get to see lives changed

Matthew 8:14 When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. 15He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.

Nothing or no one is ever the same following the touch of Jesus. When we reach out in His name and become a servant we get to see lives changed ourselves.

Bill Hybels tells about a man in his book titled Courageous Leadership that, in his own words, wasn’t talented and couldn’t do anything but build buildings and fix things. Because this man was willing to serve God and his church God used him to lead the building committee to build millions of dollars worth of buildings for his church.

Life Application:

#1. If you need the touch of the Master in your life, He is here today to serve you.

#2. Once you have been touched He will use you to serve others. Get ready!

TS: There is nothing more exciting to me than seeing lives changed. That is what makes my job so much fun. I can’t wait to see who Jesus is going to touch and change next.

There is more.

Because servants get to be near Jesus

Matthew 8:18 When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. 19Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”20Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”