I Will Be A Servant In The Church Series

With that in mind, you may have noticed the title of my message this morning is, “I Will Be A Servant in the Church”. That title has multiple meanings for us today. First of all it can be applied to those that have been ordained as deacons who were saying literally, “I will be a servant in the church”, but there is a sense in which we all should be able to make that same commitment. Not necessarily to serve in the office of deacon, but to be a servant and a minister of the church. Can you imagine what this church could do if every person that made up the church saw themselves as they should, as a minister in the church? We really are all priests and ministers in God’s service.

I believe one of the greatest problems facing the church is a lack of people with a servant’s heart. This is a problem that is plaguing the church and the world. People are interested in themselves that they forget that it is not about us, but we are called to serve others. We love it when we are served, and in our consumer driven culture many of the people within the church come looking for what they can get rather than what they can give. I said before as we studied the Gospel of John that we need to take off our bibs and put on our aprons and become servants in the church. We are all called to serve. I hope that the church here can strive even more to be a church where every member sees it as their task to do the work of ministry theirselves.

You may be wondering, what it is I am asking of you this time? Perhaps you thought since it was ordination day you would get a day off too of having the preacher preach to me. Well…I want us all to commit to being a servant. What exactly does this entail? I do not know if there is one particular action you can do to make you a servant, but I believe servanthood is more than actions it is an attitude stemming from the heart. There are only two options for what you can be. You can either be selfish or servant in nature. Are you a servant this morning or are you selfish? Here are some examples of what it means to be a servant. You have a lot to do one particular day, you feel overwhelmed, and then someone calls you and needs a favor that will throw your day off. If you agree you won’t get your chores done, you will get behind, you may be up later that night getting those things done, what do you do? A selfish person would make up an excuse to get out of it; a servant would make the sacrifices necessary and eagerly and joyfully help that person?

Suppose that you are at the store and someone is carrying some groceries, and their bags break and groceries go rolling all over the parking lot, what do you do? A selfish person acts like they didn’t see it take place, but a servant stops and helps in any way they can.

Suppose today we go up to a fellowship meal and after we are done eating you can’t wait to go home and rest, and the same crowd in the kitchen washing dishes, what do you do? Run out quickly to avoid helping or go in the kitchen and tell those people who clean every time we eat that it is their turn to leave and not worry about it and that you will stay behind and make sure all the dishes are clean and the building is back to how it should be?