Dave’s Monday Blast – July 3, 2017
Happy 4th of July. God Bless America!
Last week we began chatting about Jesus’ very INTENTIONAL model of leadership…the best leaders are first and foremost servants. These familiar passages (Matthew 20:26-27 and John 13:14-15) remind us that Jesus lived what He taught. There are four important truths for us to consider as we attempt to understand the essence of service as Christ modeled for us each day of His life.
From last week:
- Serving is not what we do for God, but what He does through us(John 14:12).
- God is the one who determines how we are to serve Him (Ephesians 2:10; 1 Corinthians 12:7).
New this week:
- No matter what we are doing, ultimately we’re serving Christ. All of us have had jobs where we felt underpaid, over-worked and underappreciated. We have told God that we deserved something better. However, the words of Colossians 3:23 remind me that in those circumstances what I really need is a change of attitude. “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.” Remember my friends…we are sweeping and scrubbing for Christ!
- We must realize that we cannot serve ourselves and God at the same time. In order to become a servant of Christ, we must overcome our self-centeredness. That is why Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me (Luke 9:23).Christ’s apostles willingly served and died for Him, and there may come a day when we must do the same. But for now, we must simply lay down our own agendas and desires in order to make ourselves available for whatever the Lord would have us do.
God wants us to grow in Christ-likeness, and since Jesus came not to be served but to serve, this should be our ambition as well. Is it costly? Yes. It can be sacrificial, inconvenient, and exhausting. Sometimes we feel limited by our health, financial resources, abilities, or age. But the biggest factor is our attitude. If we are motivated by love and a desire to honor the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:14), we won’t have to look for ways to serve Him because He’ll put opportunities right in our path.
Each of us is called to be a servant of Christ wherever we are, but that’s not all. This is also our eternal destiny. According to Revelation 22:3, we will spend eternity serving our Lord in heaven. What a high and glorious calling we have as servants of Christ!
