The Greatness Of Serving Matthew 20:25-28 Luke 22:24-26 Deuteronomy 10:12-13 Deuteronomy 13:4 Joshua 22:5 1 Samuel 12:24 Matthew 6:24 Galatians 5:13-14 Ephesians 6:7-8 1 Peter 4:10 1 Peter 4:11 Joshua 24:14-15 01.07.19

THE GREATNESS OF SERVING

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)

²⁴ Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. ²⁵ Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. ²⁶ But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.”  Luke 22:24-26 (NIV)

¹² And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to observe the LORD's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?  Deuteronomy 10:12-13 (NIV)

⁴ It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.  Deuteronomy 13:4 (NIV)

⁵ “But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul.” Joshua 22:5 (NIV)

²⁴ But be sure to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.  1 Samuel 12:24 (NIV)

²⁴ “No one 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.”  Matthew 6:24 (NIV)

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. ¹⁴ The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:13-14 (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)

¹⁰ Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.  1 Peter 4:10 (NIV)

¹¹ If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 4:11 (NIV)

¹⁴ “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. ¹⁵ But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”  Joshua 24:14-15 (NIV)

BUTTER

“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

“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

“Remember Whose you are and Whom you serve.”    Oswald Chambers

“Let us in the same way show to the people of the world who think our religion to be slavery, that it is a delight and a joy; that it is no more a burden to us to pray than it is for the fish to swim; that it is no more bondage for us to serve God than for a bird to fly. True godliness is our natural element now that we have a new nature given us by the Spirit of God. On that matter be witnesses for God.”   Charles H. Spurgeon

“Maturity is for ministry! We grow up in order to give out. It is not enough to keep learning more and more. We must act on what we know and practice what we claim to believe. Impression without expression causes depression. Study without service leads to spiritual stagnation. Most of the time we’re more interested in ‘serve us’ than service. We say, ‘I’m looking for a church that meets my needs and blesses me,’ not ‘I’m looking for a place to serve and be a blessing.’ We expect others to serve us, not vice versa. But as we mature in Christ, the focus of our lives should increasingly shift to living a life of service. The mature follower of Jesus stops asking, ‘Who’s going to meet my needs?’ and starts asking, ‘Whose needs can I meet?’     Pastor Rick Warren

“All is vanity but to love God and serve Him.”   Thomas a Kempis

“If I could I would thrust a thorn into the seat where you are now sitting, and make you spring up for a moment to the dignity of a thought of your responsibilities. Why, sirs, what has God made you for? What has he sent you here for? Did he make stars that should not shine, and suns that should give no light, and moons that should not cheer the darkness? Has he made rivers that shall not be filled with water, and mountains that shall not stay the clouds? Has he made even the forests which shall not give a habitation to the birds; or has he made the prairie which shall not feed the wild flocks? And has he made thee for nothing? Why, man, the nettle in the corner of the churchyard has its uses, and the spider on the wall serves her Maker; and you, a man in the image of God, a blood-bought man, a man who is in the path and track to heaven, a man regenerated, twice created, are you made for nothing at all but to buy and to sell, to eat and to drink, to wake and to sleep, to laugh and to weep, to live to yourself?”   Charles H. Spurgeon

“But the truth is you get to either serve others with grace, or serve others with a grudge — or you can simply serve yourself, and that means you will serve yourself grief. The question is never will you serve. The answer is you will serve — but who will you serve and how?”   Ann Voskamp

“God measures success by faithfulness, and He bestows fresh layers of mercy as we serve Him day by day, all the days of our lives.”   Robert J. Morgan

“Gideon was a very insecure man. He was insecure about his tribe, his clan. He was insecure about his own place in his family. Gideon expressed total inadequacy and lacked qualifications.  But God specializes in these situations. He loves to take inadequate, weak, insecure people and transform them to serve His purpose. God does not have difficulty using the weak and the insecure; He has difficulty using the proud and the arrogant.”   Michael Youssef

“The invitation to enjoy God is not icing. It is the cake of Christianity. If he is not enjoyed in real measure, then he is not truly believed, trusted, feared, obeyed, or worshiped. God is not seeking disinterested praise, but “worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). He isn’t enlisting dutiful soldiers, but those who will serve with gladness (Psalms 100:2). He is the kind of God, so rich and full, so free and secure, that he will not settle for human compulsion and going through the external motions. He calls, and effects, the willing and eager. He wants, and is worthy, to capture the heart. The trust he wins is not disinterested faith (as if that were really possible), but the kind of faith that enjoys him (2 Corinthians 1:24; Philippians 1:25; Hebrews 11:6).”  David Mathis

“The person who serves selflessly, lovingly, without complaint, and without seeking recognition is highly regarded in the kingdom of God. The world will estimate your importance by the number of people serving you. God is more concerned with the number of people you are serving.”   Henry Blackaby, Richard Blackaby 

“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  

HEART SAVOR

• ·         Jesus came not to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many.  Are we not to follow in His steps – to pour out our lives like a drink offering?
• ·         God delights in the loving and willing service of Hs saints.
• ·         To serve Him is both for our good and His glory – never one surpassing the other.