When King Solomon died his son Rehoboam ascended to the throne of Israel. All the people gathered for the coronation. But not all were there to celebrate. A large group representing the ten southern tribes of Israel confronted the soon to be king. They essentially said, that if the Rehoboam didn’t treat the people better than his father, and lighten the crippling taxes they were under they would never serve him. The new king asked for three days to consider what his answer should be. First he met with a group of wise older men who had advised his father. But then he met with a group of younger men, his friends, his cronies, who told him that he should not lower the taxes but should in stead raise them and demand more service from them. That is the advice that he followed and it cost him the Kingdom. From then on there was always two Israels called Israel and Judah.
Human nature has not changed much. Most people today are more interested in being served than in serving. Unfortunately, that is all too often the attitude found in people who are part of the church. Yet a servant attitude is one of the most important characteristics of godly men and women. 2 Cor. 4:5 The Apostle Paul makes it clear that a servant attitude is the key to ministry.
The fact is that all the great saints of scripture referred to themselves as servants to God and to others, including Moses, Samuel, David, Mary, Peter and James.
Jesus taught about servant hood many times. He emphasized that servant hood was to be characteristic and a virtue of anyone who followed him. He called his disciples then and to us today to a life style that runs against the grain of the world’s thinking. Being a servant is fundamental to our becoming like Jesus. We are called to serve. Being a servant does not mean doing a few good things for people. It means adopting a life-style and identity that is like the lifestyle Jesus chose for himself. Jesus was called to serve and He did. We are called to serve, and we should.
In Phil. 2:3, 4 we discover some of the aspects of being a servant.
1. The first characteristic of servants is that they prize the interests of others above their own. They have a genuine concern of others. They do not serve for what they can get out of it, nor for some ulterior motive. They serve simply to meet needs in which God wants to use them to meet. They serve as an authentic expression of Christ-like love.
They esteem the other person as worthy to be served. In the world estimate that person may not be worth doing anything for. But Christians use a different standard. A person is valuable simple because God has created them. They take an interest in seeing the other person succeed. That means not just doing for that person what the servant wants or likes to do, but servants are called to take a real interest in what that other person is trying to do.
2. The second characteristic of servants is that they yield their rights. When a person decides to prize another’s interests above their own, they find that it involves forfeiting many of their rights. Again, this runs contrary to the world’s thinking, which makes so much out of demanding your rights. A servant of Christ forfeits those rights voluntarily. People love to be acknowledged. But the servants of Christ are willing to forfeit even the right of recognition. Much of what God wants to do in this world involves unsung efforts. We will often be called upon to do things for which we will get no credit of notice.
But we are willing to forfeit our rights to be recognized in order to get the job done for the kingdom of God. The bible tells us that what is done for God and goes unnoticed here on earth does not get missed in God’s eyes and he has a future reward waiting. A far greater reward than anything this world could afford. I’d say, don’t forfeit your heavenly reward by Broadcasting how you served God down here.
Many times people are in need and there is no one there to help them. Where are all the Christians? It is not that they are out doing anything immoral, illegal or unscriptural; they are just caught up doing their own thing. They are not concerned in serving others. Don’t we love to tell God when, where, whom and how we are going to serve? We’ll pray, “Lord, I’m going to serve you and here is what I’m going to do for you; I’ll sing in the choir, I’ll do this and that on Thursday evening . . .” and a few more item. Nothing wrong with the things they say they are going to do but they are starting out wrong. They are telling God what when and for how long; when they should start by asking God what he wants done and when he wants it done and for how long he wants it done.
3. A third characteristic of a servant is that they are willing to pay the cost of servant hood.
Servants of Christ not only forfeit their rights, but they also go beyond that to sacrificial giving of themselves. They are willing to give what ever is theirs if need be. Simply doing nice things for people can be relatively easy. You can see this all the time in the secular and business worlds. True servants of God can be called on by God to serve even when it will not prove rewarding to them
Much of what God wants to happen through our lives will take place in circumstances where there will have to be sacrifices and no compensation as reward. Most people only want to serve when it is convenient. They are willing to give whether money or time when they have it in excess. Not many rush in to serve when it will cost something. Involved in the sacrifice of servant hood is the cost of inconvenience. How available have you made yourself to do God’s bidding?
Now here is the question: Why would anyone want to live as a servant? Lets face it, being a servant is not the most popular vocation in the world. Most people, no matter what culture they live in do not really want to serve others. The Christian, however, is called to serve.
There are three reasons given in the scripture.
A. First, we are called to serve because we were created so that we could choose to live our lives for God’s glory No matter what others may try to tell you what you should do in life, glorifying God is really what matters for the Christian. Your main reason for existence, your reason for getting up in the morning is to serve and glorify God. You may have a profession, a farm, or lawyer or doctor; you may have a position at a work site, you may have a role such as mother or supporter etc, but all of that is subsequent to bringing glory to God each day you live. Many of us have all sorts of plans and schemes about what we want to do for God, and how we can go about glorifying Him. Quite often these best-laid plans go awry and we get upset. Why?
Because we don’t realize that God is more concerned with how we are going to glorify Him in our lives than He is with what we can accomplish.
Example: There is a fellow by the name of Bob who plans to go on a two-week mission trip to, say, Mexico to help build a church. He is going to do this for God so Christians, a lot less fortunate than himself, can have a place to worship. Bob is willing to pay his own way and give up some of his holidays to do this. But then he is not able to raise the money to go or something comes up in his schedule that can’t be changed and the details for the trip just don’t work out. Bob really, really wanted to go and he is quite upset and frustrated and questioning God as to why he wouldn’t clear the way for him to go. After all, Bob was going to do something great for God. In his disappointment, Bob, doesn’t act very Christ-like, and nothing that would bring glory to God. Bob has missed the whole point. God is to be glorified in our actions and attitude no matter what happens in life, and especially in the disappointing times. God is more concerned about how Bob reacts in not being able to go than he is about
what Bob can accomplish in helping to build a church in Mexico.
B. The second reason we are called to serve is that Jesus himself chose for himself the role of a servant, and He calls us to be like Him. We were made in his image originally, but sin marred that likeness. In God’s plan of salvation God is bringing us back to His original plan by making us to become like Christ and that includes being like Jesus in servant hood. We admire Jesus’ purity, single-mindedness and his compassion. We love his gentle way and many other qualities about him. But Jesus himself stated that he came to serve. We cannot leave out that part of the character of Christ.
If we are not becoming more and more a servant to God and our fellow human beings we are not becoming more like Jesus. You were created to serve and you will never enjoy person deep down inner satisfaction unless you do. Self-serving people are restless unsatisfied people. Ironically, you were not designed to live for yourself. The Master designer, God, wired you to serve.
C. The third reason the Bible calls us to live a life of service is to win others to God. It is very difficult to serve the selfish, the unkind, and the self-centered. Yet Jesus said that His Father is kind to the selfish, the ungrateful, the proud. We know this to be true because he has been all of that to us, for that is what we were. Our serving and our kindness and our sacrificial acts of love help to bridge the gap that keeps people from receiving Christ.
If our service to others can do that, then it will be worth it all. It will be worth every heartache and discomfort if we can see others and especially those we love make it to heaven. There is so much in our lives that seems important like the college degree or the new car or your reputation or stylish clothes etc but they are really not worth a hoot in term of eternity.
So much of life involves worrying about things that have no eternal consequences. That is, things that make no difference what so ever to life after this life, whether for your life or for someone else’s. Howard Hendricks has said, “When a person does not have an eternal perspective, he or she is more concerned with what people do for them than what they can do for Christ.” When we serve people who are distasteful we too get concerned about ourselves, – our feelings, and our rights – and lose sight of the fact that God is concerned and deeply loves them.
The basic problem that we have in being what we ought to be is that we are sinners. We are essentially self-centered, selfish creatures. We get caught up with the world’s preoccupation with who’s the greatest, and how to climb the ladder of success. The solution is self-surrender and submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. All of us are called to respond and to accept Jesus into our life, and many do, but relatively few actually submit completely to his Lordship.
My challenge to you is to move to a greater degree of servant hood to Jesus. Submit to that goal each day and with time, submission will become a pervasive characteristic and attitude of your life and our ability to serve will grow in the same way. Take the initiative to serve somebody. In the Gospels we do not see Jesus looking around for all the sick, all the hungry, all the emotionally disturbed people. He had the power to heal all, but instead we see Him simply meeting the needs of all those who crossed his path. He ministered to the needs of all those whom the Father brought in His way.
Taking the initiative to serve does not mean you need to overwhelm yourself with all the needs of the world, but it does mean going ahead and serving by meeting the needs of those around you. And don’t get frustrated with your inability to serve as much as you might want to. Frustration is sometimes a sign that you are trying too hard in your own strength and not the Lord’s. Let the Lord lead you into service.
We are called to serve. If we are really serious about becoming like Him and carrying the Good News to Salvation to those who do not believe yet, then we should follow Jesus’ example. You and I have the privilege of volunteering to be servants of people for Jesus’ sake, and the rewards for doing that are eternal.
