Pastor Kevin Reed
Grace Evangelical Free Church
4714 13 Mile Road, Rockford
“…Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant… …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” Matthew 20:26,28 (NIV).
There is an old song that we used to sing in Sunday school, and the words went something like this, “If you wanna be great in God’s kingdom, you gotta be a servant of all…” It is a catchy tune and still all these years later I remember it. But lately I have been asking myself the question, “Do I believe it?” It is easy to sing about being a servant, it is harder to become one. It’s easy to quote the Bible verses where Jesus tells us to be a servant, but it’s harder to live them. It’s easy to praise Jesus for his selfless act of becoming a servant as mentioned in Philippians 2:5-11 (take the time to read it), but it’s harder to follow his example as we are commanded to in the beginning of that passage.
To serve others is a great idea, and we all believe it needs to be done, but at the core of our being we would much rather be served than serve, and therein lies the dilemma. Our society tells us to do what makes us feel good, well that is to let others serve us, while our Savior tells us to do that which goes against everything we feel, and that is to forego our perceived “right” to be served and use our lives to serve others. As Children of the Most High, this is a crossroads that we are faced with everyday. Whom are we going to follow? Whom are we going to listen to today? After all, being a “servant” seems so dirty, so low, so unamazing. Why would anyone want to voluntarily do that?
I would like to encourage you today that in becoming a servant we have the privilege of showing other people Jesus, and shouldn’t that be our number one goal as children of God? You see, it was Jesus who came to this earth and deserved the “red-carpet” treatment. He deserved to be worshiped, but the Bible tells us that he chose to serve rather than be served. There are enough people (Christians and nonChristians alike) in this world who want to be served, but there are few true servants who have realized that only in serving others do I have the privilege of showing them the greatest servant of all, Jesus. And friends, may I propose to you that the world needs to start seeing less of God’s children and more of Jesus! The only way we can accomplish this is by being a servant, because only in becoming a servant can we reflect to this world our Savior! Think about it—who can you show Jesus to today?
