Sermon Study # 237 – SERVANT SPIRIT
Illustrate the life of Ruth. She had a sincere spirit of servitude. She served Naomi and served Boaz. She was rewarded for her sacrificial service.
Naomi’s husband and then two sons died. She was left with her daughters-in-law - Orpah and Ruth. After being married for 10 years, these young women were left hopeless. Ruth chose to cling to Naomi and pledged to become her servant.
Ruth pledges to serve Naomi:
Ruth 1:16 But Ruth replied, "Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Ruth 1:17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."
What does it mean to serve?
(1) TO SERVE IS A RESULT OF SALVATION.
Heb 9:14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
(2) TO SERVE GOD IS TO SERVE OTHERS.
Acts 17:24 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. Acts 17:25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.
1 Peter 4:10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.
(3) TO SERVE IS TO LOVE.
Gal 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature ; rather, serve one another in love. Gal 5:14 The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
(4) TO SERVE IS TO BE GREAT.
Mat 20:26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, Mat 20:27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave-- Mat 20:28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
