The True Servant

Did any one of you get up this morning and say to yourself: “I want to be a servant today.”?

Probably not, although several of you will be servants today, and, in fact,  some of you have already been servants this morning.

The question before us this morning is this:

“What Is A True Servant?”

The true servant possesses an unsatisfied appetite for doing what is right – having a passionate desire and drive for justice. An unsatisfied appetite simply means that we are constantly pursuing a goal.

Spiritually speaking, the true servant is engaged in these things:

1.    TRUE SERVANTS ARE ENGAGED IN ACTIVELY PURSUING GOD

Jeremiah 29:13: You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

That servant who is following is:

searching for answers;

undertaking tasks without seeking recognition;

pressing on toward a goal;  actively aiming toward a goal;

being fully absorbed in achieving that goal;

always seeking guidance, learning, and moving forward in his growth, wisdom and knowledge.

An active servant is one who goes the extra mile to care for his or her loved ones and their family in Christ.

The active servant goes above and beyond just the minimum that is expected of him or her.

That servant doesn’t only walk with God on Sunday morning.

God is with this true servant – side by side – and within that servant.

Prayer is a vital part of pursuing God. We can communicate personally with Him.

It is vital that we are intentional in our prayers – speaking openly and honestly with Him.

In our private conversations with God, we share our hearts, we listen for His guidance, and it strengthens our relationship with Him.

Through prayer, we grow in faith and we experience His presence in our lives.

It’s about creating a habit in which, talking to God becomes part of our daily life, reflecting our desire to get closer to Him.

Our prayers can transform our minds and hearts, when we allow them to  align with His will.

 2.    TRUE SERVANTS ARE WALKING WITH GOD

A true servant is with Him in every facet of his/her life.

We walk with God in our conversation – not just in prayer with God, but in conversation with others who are in our life – family, friends, strangers, the checker at the grocery store, etc.

Conversation is more than just talking. Conversation is also found in our walk – in our attitude toward one another.

We walk with God in our attitude – Now, what is our attitude? Attitude is the way a person – individually thinks or feels about someone or even something.

Our attitude may determine how we treat another person. Is our attitude toward the person who cuts us off in traffic a positive attitude?

How do we react to another person who shows us an unexpected kindness?

Is our attitude one of true thankfulness? Sometimes folks have a different reaction when a kindness is shown to them --- that attitude might be: “I wonder what he/she wants since he/she is so kind to me?”

The proper attitude, of course, will gratefully be thankful and express that thankfulness to the person.

As we walk with God in our daily life, His presence should, and will, guide our every deed.

The Old Testament Prophet Micah gives us some insight into our daily walk with God when he wrote these words (6:8):

He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

When we live with integrity, both in our public and private lives, when we show mercy – even to those who do wrong to us – when we constantly cling on tight to God’s Word and fully desire His presence in our daily lives, we will make choices that are pleasing to God.

While we live in this broken and increasingly wicked world, we won’t achieve perfection, but we can, and we must, aim for perfection --- that is, to model our lives after Jesus.

Something we can cling to is this from Matthew 3:17: “...and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is “My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

3.    TRUE SERVANTS ARE PLEASING GOD

Pleasing God should be the goal and aim of all who believe in and trust Him for their salvation.

Our attempt to please God, or even our desire to please Him, must not be an incentive to entice Him to answer a prayer or to simply provide something we might be desiring in our own life – that is, a selfish desire.

There are some requirements for anyone who desires to please God. They must seek Him by placing their faith in Him; they must walk in the Spirit, rather than walk in the flesh, and walk worthy of their calling in obedience and submission to His will.

Paul writes in his letter to the church in Rome these words concerning pleasing God: Romans 8:8 : “.....those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

His reasoning for that statement is that those who are in the flesh have not, or will not, submit their will to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Our desire to please God must simply be to bring honor and glory to Him as our Provider and our Sustainer in each day of our lives.

Once we have entered into a spiritual relationship with God as our Father we are pleasing to Him. We are “in Christ” and God sees us as perfect at that point.

Pleasing God is a matter of living according to His precepts, His commandments, and doing it because of our love for Him.

4.    TRUE SERVANTS ARE SATISFIED SERVANTS

There is an old, old hymn – and when I say old, I mean REALLY OLD – written in the 12th century by Bernard of Clairvaux.

The song is titled: JESUS, THOU JOY OF LOVING HEARTS.

Some of the words in the song say this: “We taste Thee, O  Thou Living Bread, and long to feast upon Thee still; We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead, and Thirst, our souls from Thee to fill.”

In the Beatitude we read  from Matthew 5:6: says:  “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

Hungering and Thirsting After Righteousness also means, in addition to looking up to God – also looking around and experiencing grief over the corruption, the lack of integrity, the moral compromising, all encompassed in the gross sin in the world.

The true servant hungers and thirsts for righteousness here on earth as well.

True servants are unwilling to sigh, and just shrug off the things that are unrighteous in this world we live in today.

And they dream and plan and go for that dream and those plans and see them fulfilled.

The promise of this beatitude --- “they shall be filled” – that is, they will be satisfied.