GREATNESS
IS ABOUT SERVING GREATLY
BREAD
25 Jesus
called them together and said, “You know that the
rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise
authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead,
whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and
whoever wants to be first must be your slave-- 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.” Matthew
20:25-28 (NIV)
35 Sitting
down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone
wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” Mark 9:35 (NIV)
3 Jesus
knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come
from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer
clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water
into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel
that was wrapped around him. John
13:3-5 (NIV)
7 Serve
wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8 because you know that the Lord
will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free. Ephesians 6:7-8 (NIV)
7 The
end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so
that you can pray. 8 Above
all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9 Offer hospitality to one
another without grumbling. 10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to
serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. 1 Peter 4:7-10 (NIV)
38 “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed
down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with
the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:38 (NIV)
13 “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the
one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and Money.” Luke
16:13 (NIV)
“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles
himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:14
(NIV)
9 “And
you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with
wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive
behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you
forsake him, he will reject you forever. 10 Consider now, for the Lord
has chosen you to build a temple as a sanctuary. Be strong and do the work.” 1 Chronicles 28:9-10 (NIV)
BUTTER
“Remember
Whose you are and Whom you serve.” Oswald
Chambers
“A
primary qualification for serving God with any amount of success, and for doing
God’s work well and triumphantly, is a sense of our own weakness. When God’s warrior marches forth to battle,
strong in his own might, when he boasts, ‘I know that I shall conquer, my own
right arm and my conquering sword shall get unto me the victory’, defeat is not
far distant. God will not go forth with
that man who marches in his own strength.
He who reckoneth on victory thus has reckoned wrongly, for ‘it is not by
might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts’. They who go forth to fight, boasting of their
prowess, shall return with their gay banners trailed in the dust, and their
armour stained with disgrace. Those who
serve God must serve Him in His own way, and in His strength, or He will never
accept their service. That which man
doth, unaided by divine strength, God can never own. The mere fruits of the earth He casteth away;
He will only reap that corn, the seed of which was sown from heaven, watered by
grace, and ripened by the sun of divine love.
God will empty out all that thou hast before He will put His own into
thee; He will first clean out the granaries before He will fill them with the
finest of the wheat……Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being
filled, and your casting down is but the making ready for your lifting up.” C. H. Spurgeon
“To
love God, to serve Him because we love Him, is…our highest happiness…Love makes
all labor light. We serve with
enthusiasm where we love with sincerity.”
Hannah More
“From God, great
and small, rich and poor, draw living water from a living spring, and those who
serve Him freely and gladly will receive grace answering to grace.” Thomas
a Kempis
“There is no broadminded approach when it comes to entering into the
life that God has for you. God doesn't present you with a variety of doors to
consider. He doesn't say, 'Go ahead and pick the door that looks best to you,
and after you decide, I will support your decision and bless all that you do.'
It is true that God does have a plan and a purpose for your life, but it can
only be entered into through one door. Jesus Christ is that door. There is no
other entrance. There is only one Gospel to believe; only one Truth to embrace;
only one Shepherd to follow; only one Savior to trust; only one Lord to serve;
only one Master to obey.” Roy Lessin
“What
ultimately keeps our motives biblically prioritized and holy before God is the
profound conviction that obeying God will merit us nothing. This is why Jesus tells us that, when we have
done all that we should do, we are still unprofitable servants. Jesus does not nullify the value of duty in
order to dissuade us from serving God, but to keep is from depending on duty to
gain God’s acceptance. When we
understand that our works in themselves earn us no merit with God, then the
only reason to do those works is love for Him.
Thus we learn to serve God not for personal gain but for His glory-not
for love of self but for love of the Savior.”
Bryan Chapell
“God doesn’t call you to a
convenient life — He calls you to an important life. A life of importance isn’t found in a life of convenience. A life of importance sees the importance of giving
your life away — to the hidden and the unpopular and the children and the
forgotten and knowing this will be remember by God.” Ann Voskamp
“Service
to God is as uniquely differing among believers as our fingerprints. God has specifically designed good works for
each life that we may walk in them through His power and for His glory and our
good. These works encompass all areas from
peeling potatoes to running a country to changing a diaper to caring for the
elderly to holding a door – it matters not what the task is but that we are
faithful to walk in it. We cannot do all
things for all people. Jesus Himself did
not feed every hungry soul nor heal every hurting one as He walked this dusty
earth. We are all limited by our
physical bodies yet through His power we are all equipped to do what we are
called to do and the body of Christ suffers –as well as we ourselves – when we remain
unfaithful to the task. God’s work done in
God’s way will never lack God’s supply and it equates to the abundant life
which Jesus came to give us. Don’t be
misled, service out of love for God is that component which makes for greatness
in a life because the God’s Word attests to that.” BHY
HEART
SAVOR
- · A great life is made up of serving greatly – whatever that serving may be – through His power for His glory for our good. Serving is not to be done out of compulsion or guilt or to earn favor from the Lord, its motivation is love for the Master trusting He has my best interest at heart.
- · Jesus came to serve and His followers are to do likewise.
- · It is God who lifts up and gives greatness to a life.
