Tie On The Apron

Men sometimes tie on an apron every time there’s cooking to be done outside. Do you know? We tie on the apron and then our wife prepares the meat, tenderizes the meat, often cuts the meat, brings it to us. We throw it on the grill. She reminds us when it’s burning. She’s in there doing the vegetables, the dessert and everything else. And then we bring in this burnt offering and everybody tells us what a good job we did cooking. Well, anyway, for a while we tie on the servant’s apron. But, humility, thinking of other people as more important than ourselves, thinking of other people to be served by us, that is to be a major characteristic of our lives. If you want to be one of those humble who stand in the waterfall of God’s grace, then it begins by tying on the apron and not taking it off and saying, "I am called by God to be a servant." And the proud will laugh at you. "That’s no way to get ahead! That’s no way to get people to respect you, to be a servant! You’ve got to demand it. You’ve got to dominate." This same thing went for the hot blooded young men who there in these churches, who might have been pushing (I’m just speculating here) might have been pushing for the churches to rise up against their persecutors and to maybe fight back. And Peter says to them in verse 5, "Be submissive to those who are older. Consider them as more important than you. Be servants." So, we begin with that servant attitude. Tie on the servants apron.

Secondly, remember Who it is you are serving. Remember Who it is that we’re serving. Sometimes it’s easy when we’re serving someone and we look at that person and maybe they’re unappreciative. Have you ever found people unappreciative of your service? Any moms here who have ever cooked a meal and the kids said, "Yuck!"? That’s one of the worst statements of unappreciation that there is – that one word rejection of your labor. And at those times, moms, when your service has been thrown into your face, remember Who you are serving. Remember Who you are serving. Look here at verse 6, "Humble yourselves, therefore," under whose mighty hand? God’s. God’s mighty hand. It is God who has called you to be a servant. And it is therefore Him who you are serving. Ultimately it is Him. He is the Audience. He is the Master. He is the recipient of your service and you are taking care of His children. So, then it doesn’t matter, does it, if we are notice or appreciated or praised? Because, ultimately, God will lift you up in due time.

Now, we can look at that verse and say, "Okay, so that means that people who give service I don’t have to appreciate and in fact I can abuse them because, after all, they’re serving God." I guess if you want to go that way, you can, but remember something here. The people who are servants, who have a servant heart and a servant attitude, they are also human beings. There can be a lot of heart felt praise and thanks can just be a wonderful gift of God really into that person’s life to encourage them in the path that they have chosen to be a servant and to serve you. So, even though we are serving God and that means that we should be able to (and that’s an ideal statement) be able to overcome abuse, rejection of other people, don’t do it. Be appreciative of that servant. So, remember Who you are serving. It is God who we are serving.