Being a Servant

TALK No. 1 : BEING A SERVANT

Expanded Outline

A. Introduction.

1. In order to be better Christian servants, we need to understand the nature of Christian service.

a) We need to ask ourselves:

 Why do we serve?

 Who are we as servants?

 How do we serve?

b) In order to answer these, we need a vision of reality that can clearly point out to us the whole approach to service that we are to take. We need to see the reality in the world around us not in the way that the world sees it, but in the way God sees it.

2. There are two basic realities that we need to see.

a) There are two kingdoms opposed to one another, the kingdom of darkness under Satan and the kingdom of light under our Lord.

 Satan has real spiritual power (Eph 6:12). He has forces under his control which are opposed to God and His followers.

 Our enemy is not principally social problems, human weakness, lack of education, etc., but a whole kingdom. Our battle is a spiritual one.

 Thus anything we do that involves taking someone from the dominion of Satan into the kingdom of light will involve us in this battle for the hearts and minds of men. Any Christian service is automatically spiritual warfare.

b) Man is in sin and bondage and needs to be redeemed.

 The fundamental problem of the world is not social ills (this is just the manifestation of the problem) but sin.

 Man needs to be reconciled with God, and only Jesus is able to do this.

 We are the instruments that God uses to bring other men back to Him.

c) The above two realities should form our vision for our Christian service.

3. Christian service is not simply what you do, but who or what you are as you do it.

a) The emphasis is on being a servant rather than on doing service.

b) Lk 10:38 42. The story of Martha and Mary.

B. There are three important New Testament passages that we will examine in order to clarify our understanding of what it means to be a servant....