Just Do It!

7/17/05

 

 

Is Jesus Christ Lord of you life?  If yes, then you are His servant!

 

What does it mean to be a servant?

 

Servants serve!

 

Rom. 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God

 

2 Pet. 1:1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ...

 

Ja. 1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ...

 

Jude 1:1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James...

 

Heb. 3:5 Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future.

 

Ps. 89:20             I have found David my servant;

       with my sacred oil I have anointed him.

 

After the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary about the miraculous birth that was going to

take place, this was her response... Lk. 1:38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary

answered.  “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.

 

Phil. 2:5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

⁶     Who, being in very nature God,

       did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

⁷     but made himself nothing,

       taking the very nature of a servant,

       being made in human likeness.

⁸     And being found in appearance as a man,

       he humbled himself

       and became obedient to death—

       even death on a cross!

 

 

 

The early church had a greater understanding of what it meant to be a servant of Christ Jesus.

 

Lk. 1:1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, ²just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.

 

Acts 4:29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. ³⁰Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

³¹After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

 

Divine Ownership

 

1 Cor. 6:18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. ¹⁹Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

 

1 Cor. 7:21 Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so. ²²For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord’s freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ’s slave. ²³You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.

 

Gal. 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

 

You will never be what God intended for you to be if you fail to understand the concept of being a servant!

 

We were saved to serve!

 

Rom. 7:4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. ⁵For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. ⁶But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

 

Rom. 12:3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. ⁴Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. ⁶We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. ⁷If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; ⁸if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

 

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.

 

1 Pet. 4:10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. ¹¹If 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.

 

It’s great to have passion, it’s wonderful to have a burning desire, but servants don’t need it!  Just Do It!

 

Lk. 17:1 Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. ²It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. ³So watch yourselves.

“If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. ⁴If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”

⁵The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

⁶He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.

⁷“Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? ⁸Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? ⁹Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? ¹⁰So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” 

 

Being a servant of Christ Jesus requires action--the right kind of action!

 

Read Mat. 25:14-46

 

If Jesus Christ is Lord of your life find one thing in the body of Christ where you can serve Him.

 

You say, I have my own ministry--great--keep it up--but.......find one thing in the body of Christ where you can serve Him as a team player!

 

If you value God’s church.  If you value the mission of the church.  If you understand what God can accomplish through His church when His people work together--then JUST DO IT!