Does anyone call you “president,” “CFO,” “consul,” or something impressive? Know matter how others label you, the title of “servant” that God has given you is your most important role in life.
If we are children of God, we are called to a life of service. Wouldn’t it be nice that every time your name was mentioned in a conversation that they were talking about you because you were a servant of the most high God. I think about introducing people and being introduced to people, and nothing pierces my heart more than to be introduced as PastorJessica, servant of the most high God.
You know, once you became a child of God. You became a child of God because you accepted Jesus Christ, and entered into the covenant paid by the blood of Christ, and now you are a child of the most high God.
Some have told me that a servant is a missionary, and evangelist, an elder, Pastor, a preacher, but they leave themselves out, and that’s not right! To prove that statement, let’s turn to Ephesians chapter 6 and let’s consider verses seven and eight.
Ephesians 6:7-8 (New International Version) 7Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.
Did you get that? Paul was not writing to a certain preacher or evangelist. He was writing to the common person. He was writing to the child of God. These things are for us all. We are all servants of the most high God.
Maybe, when you accepted Jesus Christ as your savior, no one told you that you were now a servant of God. Perhaps, now that you are sanctified and set apart for the call of God, you realize that you are a servant of God. Now, as servants of God how are we supposed to act? We are supposed to do everything out of love. We need to dust off our edges! We need to watch your mouth and what we say, and how we say it. We’re true servants of God let’s live up to it.
As children of God, we must realize that people watch our conduct and hear our conversations. Hopefully, they see Christ in s. Hopefully, we sparked their curiosity and they come to know Jesus Christ as their personal savior.
Today, the Holy Spirit wants us to consider our service for the kingdom! Today, let’s turn to the gospel of John and camp out in chapter 12.
24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
In order for us to live a life of abundance, we must crucify our old self, because it gets in the way. We must be full of the spirit. We must be following the spirit and not the natural man.
To be faithful, we must give ourself to the Lord. Another scripture says, pick up the cross and follow him.
Matthew 16:24 NIV “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.”
We want to serve the way we want to serve! We must stop being selfish! We must start being flexible! But we must follow the spirit and obey his call and his command. When we do things, God’s way, unimaginable fruit comes from it and we have good results!
The spirit wants you to know today, that service and serving the Lord encompasses everything that you do. For example, we all know, a godly mother! A Godly mother is one that brings her children to church and lives the Bible throughout their life. They are taking care of their families and remaining faithful in their marriages.
You see, service to the Lord, goes far beyond the church doors.
Only God can tell you how to serve the Lord. Your ministers job is to help you identify your special gift. Is that hard sometimes? Yes, so it’s hard to step out on faith, but we have to be willing to step outside of our comfort zones in order to grow and mature in Christ. None of us should want to stay a baby in Christ. All of us should have the goal of becoming an elder in the church.
Another example of serving the Lord, is going into the workplace with of some of your church members, and they are serving that company, and honoring God at the same time.
We may all have different occupations and different responsibilities but the truth of the matter is that we are all servants of the most high God.
The Holy Spirit wants us to examine some guidelines to service.
First, we must recognize that God is our creator. Jesus is our Lord and Savior. The Holy Spirit is the one who God gave us, and the one that we must listen to.
For example in Colossians, chapter 3 God created us for himself.
Colossians 3:22-24 (King James Version) “22 Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God;
23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.”
We were born to love God and to serve him. It tells us in first Corinthians chapter 6 that we are not of our own that have been bought with a price.
1 Corinthians 6:20 KJV
“For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
You see, you and I are bond servants. We do not belong to ourselves! We are owned by the master. We are created to serve the master. And we exist because of the master.
The Holy Spirit wants me to have you examine the following question: why do you exist today?
Our purpose, is to serve the master of the most high God. I even have a T-shirt that says, born with a purpose! And we are!
What I don’t understand is these Christians who lay around and are waiting for the rapture! You see no fruit from them! They only profess they are Christians. But they are not in service to the true most high God! Scripture tells us exactly who we are, and what we should be doing, because everyone needs a purpose in this life. We are to be workers of the kingdom for the kingdom.
The second guideline for service, that we must realize, is that our we are not servants FOR God, but our we are servants through God.
Remember, when you trusted Jesus as your savior, what happened? When you received Jesus, the Holy Spirit was given to you. In order to do what? To serve him. God will work through you! But we have to be willing to be used by God. He is meek, and he is gentle and he will not go where he is not wanted.
This means, God will equipped you for whatever he calls you to.
Listen, in those days, a master made sure his servants had exactly what they needed. This awesome God, that we serve, Has the same attitude toward us. Whatever he called you to do he will give you what is needed in order to fulfill that purpose. He assumes responsibility to get the job done through you.
He will provide for you, he will energize He you, he will strengthen you,
he will give you wisdom and guidance, and he’ll give you exactly what you need.
I am comforted by this! I am comforted, because I know it is not by my will, or by my mite, but it is because of Jesus, the task will be done.
The third guideline for us to follow is that no matter who we are serving physically in this life we are serving God.
It does not matter who is in charge, but it matters if the vision or direction came by God. Sometimes, we get wrapped up in here or she wants us to do it this way that we must do everything as if we are doing it directly for the Lord.
So, let’s look at the book of Colossians, chapter 3, because he makes this very clear for us!
Colossians 3:22-24
King James Version “22 Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God;
23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.”
I took this to heart one time! It was a job that I felt like was beneath me at the time, and I went in with a cheerful attitude and done the job as I was doing it for the Lord and things turned around for me.
When I looked at my boss and my coworkers, I thought of Jesus. I could look right through them and see Jesus. When they miss treated me, I thought of the cross, and how Jesus was mistreated.
I won’t say I was testing the scripture, but I was following the word, and you can’t go wrong if you do the word in your life!
If you knew that, God was going to come to work today, you would be on time, you would look your best, and you would do your best. So doing your job this way people will take notice. Doing things this way changes your whole focus which changes your work ethic and final outcomes.
The Bible never says for us to treat people as they treat us. Never one time in the word does it say because she was ill mannered toward me that I should be rude back to her. We must acknowledge that we are servants of the most high God, and we do not have the right to treat people just any old way! Several times, the Bible says revenge belongs to the Lord.
Romans 12:19 (English Standard Version) 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it[a] to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Now, someone in here is thinking well what if they asked me to do something untrue or contrary to the word of God! Then, you do not go against God’s word. The Holy Spirit, will not guide you into evilness.
When we do our work as we are doing it to God, it affects our motives. Affects our relationships with our coworkers. It makes everything better. So, if we live our lives as servants who do their very very best for God, everything changes for the good.
As we close today and go about our business this week, we need to ask God, Master, what would you have me do?
