As we continue our series on discipleship, I want to pick up where we left off in the last sermon. As we’ve been discovering in this series, there are many tests we must face on this discipleship road. Some of them confront us every day and we have choices as to how we respond to those tests. With many of them, we need to face them head on in the strength and courage of the Lord and pass them if we are to journey on any further and digest any of the real ‘meat’ of the kingdom of God. We’ve looked at the submission test, the obedience test and we’ve started looking at the servant test. I want to say some more about that test now because I believe it is one that that lies at the very core our Christian faith and practice and one that we face every day in every area of our lives.
We have been reminded that Jesus Himself is the ultimate example of a servant. As Paul tells us in Philippians 2, Jesus made a choice to be a servant. He chose to set aside His divinity, His status, His glory and His exalted position at the right hand of the Father and made a deliberate choice to let go of all that, as He stepped out of eternity into time and became one of us in order to serve us. Isaiah 53 prophesied this event and said that He would be a lowly, humble, suffering servant. Not a highly exalted king on his throne in a castle surrounded by an army of thousands, but a lowly servant, walking the dusty streets of the Middle East, always putting the needs of others above His own.
Towards the end of His time among us, Jesus took a hand basin and towel and washed his followers’ feet. When He did that, He made a very powerful statement about who He was and who we are to be if we want to follow Him. The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. We were challenged in the last sermon to look at our own lives and identify those areas where we can serve others’ needs above our own. I want us to examine this even further now as the Spirit reminds us again of our role as a servant.
Warren Wiersbe, one of the twentieth century’s greatest preachers and teachers, has a definition of ministry which I believe is worth memorising: Ministry takes place when Divine resources meet human needs through loving channels to the glory of God.
If you and I desire to be ministers of the gospel; if we desire to be obedient disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we must first of all know and experience those divine resources personally. We must be connected to the power of the living God. Only then will we be able to see the human needs around us with understanding and compassion and be the loving channels God needs to meet those needs. And all of this is done for one reason – the glory of God. When God is glorified, His Spirit can work to bring Christ to those who need to know Him.
At the very heart of the above definition is the understanding that ministry is for others. We are called as Christians to live for others. As I have already said, we all have the same label: SERVANT. Ministry is not just another way of filling in our time or making a living if you are full time. It is a wonderful opportunity to make a life that is lived for others. It is an opportunity to live and minister and serve like the Lord Jesus; to see His life and character and mission develop and grow in us and affect all that we think, say and do.
When Jesus was here on earth, He met all kinds of human needs and He wasn’t always thanked or appreciated. Some even turned against Him. We live in a world filled with people who have incredible needs of all kinds. There are a number of ways we can relate to these needs. It’s a choice that each of us faces every day as we observe those needs. We may choose to be blind to those needs as we live our own lives and serve our own interests. That is an option many of us choose. It goes directly against our calling as a disciple, but it’s still an option we can choose. Again, the Lord Jesus leads the way here. Paul reminds us in Philippians 2 of the character of Jesus and the character we are called to exhibit when he wrote this:
Philippians 2:3-4 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
We can be blind to those needs at times, but I doubt that we want to be like that. We may choose to take advantage of those needs for our own benefit. Yes, sadly, it is possible to be in ministry and to use people to get what we want instead of helping people to get what they need. The Pharisees were a prime example here. They used the people to build their own authority and importance. Jesus exposed this in Matthew 23. If we are not careful, we can minister in such a way that we exploit the needs of others to get ourselves recognition, position, status or privileges. True servants will always help others whether they benefit from that serving or not. They are only concerned that people’s needs are met and that God is glorified in the process.
Or we may know about the needs of others but choose to do nothing. That’s exactly what the Priest and the Levite did when they saw the dying man on the road in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Both saw the needs of the man but chose to pass by on the other side. Granted, it is impossible as a servant of God for us to do something about every need we encounter. But that should never be used as an excuse to do nothing about any of them! We all know that we should not turn a blind eye to the needs of others; nor should we exploit them; nor should we ignore them. The only way for a true servant to respond is to ask: ‘Lord, what can I do to be a loving channel for this person so that they can connect with Your resources?’
Let me put it in worldly terms: we are not called to be manufacturers – we are called to be distributors. God is the one with the products, it’s God’s love, God’s grace, God’s mercy, God’s wisdom, God’s strength, God’s guidance, God’s power. God’s word. People desperately need all of them! We have nothing that will meet their needs. We can only act as distributors of what God has for them. We are to be loving channels through which God can pour Himself into the lives of others. That should take the heat off us a little. We don’t have to makeanything happen. We don’t have to even have the answers to people’s problems. We just need to be there for them, with open hearts, with compassion and understanding – as we allow God to do the rest.
The people we are called to serve have all kinds of needs: physical, emotional, relational, financial; but at the heart of it all, their greatest need is God. That doesn’t mean that the Word of God or prayer will pay their bills or fill their stomachs directly. We don’t quote a Bible promise to a hungry person and send them on their way with an empty stomach. No, we must do what we can to meet those immediate human needs. But unless we help people grow into a right relationship with God, whatever help we give will only be temporary. A band-aid measure; a stopgap; a quick fix until the next time they have a need and then the cycle is repeated. Perhaps that’s one of the main differences between genuine Christian ministry and mere humanitarian benevolence, as helpful as it may be. Both can be done in love, both can put food on the table and shoes on the feet, but only true Christian ministry can put grace in the heart so that lives are transformed and people’s deepest problems are really solved. The best way to serve someone is not to solve their problems for them, but to lead them to God’s grace, His empowering presence in their lives, so they will be able to solve all their problems in His strength and His power – not their own, and not yours.
Somebody once said: at the heart of every problem is the problem of the heart. But this statement is only partly true because sometimes it’s not what we have done, but what others have done to us. Children sometimes suffer for what their parents do. The opposite can also be true. The company manager embezzles money and wrecks the business and dozens of innocent workers are out on the streets looking for work. They did nothing wrong. People may not cause their own problems, but they will most certainly make them worse if they relate to their problems the wrong way. What life does to us depends on what life finds in us. That is where the grace of God comes in.
The church is the Body of Christ on earth. We are the day-to-day manifestation of Jesus Christ. We are the only Jesus many people are going to see and hear. So, we must project the real Jesus, the suffering servant of all, the one Who did not come to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. That is to be our attitude. Our hearts are to be giving, servant hearts – sacrifice and service, to the glory of God. Selfishness says: what will I get? Service says: what I have I give to you freely. Human needs today are countless and indescribable and if you have a tender heart, almost unbearable. You and I can’t do everything, but we can do something, and that something is the ministry that God has called us to fulfil.
I came across a new word in my reading this week. The word is Erinaceous. It is a zoological term which describes the Hedgehog family. I believe some people are erinaceous! They are like hedgehogs – the closer you get to them, the more you are wounded by their protective quills. You want to help them, but if you do, you are going to get hurt. If the motivation for our serving is anything less that Christ’s love rising up in our hearts, then our ministry will not really meet human needs long-term, and it most certainly won’t glorify God. When Jesus saw the multitude in Matthew 9:36, He was moved with compassion for them. That’s why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:14 that the love of Christ compels us – or constrains us.
When I use the term ‘loving channels’ I don’t mean to imply that God’s servants are passive conduits through whom God pours His blessings, come what may. God doesn’t want to work in spite of us or instead of us, He wants to work in us and through us. Then, as He is working to share His divine resources, in partnership with us, to bless someone else, He blesses ‘the channel’ in the process. If the worker doesn’t get a blessing out of the work, something is radically wrong. Serving in the kingdom of God isn’t punishment, it’s nourishment. Jesus said: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to do His work.”
Serving in the Kingdom of God requires us to work with people and people not only have problems, they can often be the problems because of the way they deal with the issues they face. They can grow invisible protective quills to keep others at a distance and if you don’t genuinely love these people in the Lord, you will never be able to help them. Some people are blind to their own real needs and constantly want to go on a detour from the real issue they are facing. Other people choose to ignore their needs and blame somebody else. Then there are people who have learned to exploit their needs to get what they want from others. They can’t afford to have their problems solved because their whole lifestyle is built on them. This third group is the hardest of all to help. We must remember nevertheless that we are loving channels of the grace of God. As Bernard of Clairveaux once said: ‘Justice seeks out the merits of the case, love only regards the need.’ We who are servants, don’t deserve His grace any more than those we are serving. Who are we to limit God’s grace and mercy just because we don’t like how a person is responding?
We must always keep grace and truth in balance, however. There is never a situation when the truth of who God is and what He has called us to do and to be, can be overlooked in our service of others. Jesus loved people all the way to cross, but He also confronted error along the way. If grace and truth contradict one another, then something is amiss.
Now many of us confess that we are simply not capable of loving people the way Jesus does. We do our best to practice 1 Corinthians 13, but it doesn’t always last. However, that is the manufacturer mentality again. God does not ask us to work up this love in our own strength. He promises to pour His love into us when we need it. The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:5). The love that we need for ministry and to be a true disciple and servant of God, is not a natural ability. It is a supernatural gift that only God can give. When the people we serve irritate us or disappoint us or attack us, the first thing we usually do is pray for them and ask the Lord to change them. What we ought to do first is to pray for ourselves and ask God to increase His love in us – for that is what will ultimately change others.
Ephesians 4:32 exhorts us to be kind to one another (even if they are not kind to us), be tender-hearted (even if they hurt us), forgive one another even as God in Christ forgave us. The Holy Spirit can make us adequate for any ministry challenge He brings our way. If fact, I believe God allows some problem people to come into our lives so we will learn to depend more on His power than our own limited resources.
There is a truth about Christian service that many of us overlook, it is simply this: God is as concerned about the servant as He is the service. If God’s sole agenda was to get the work done, He could just send His angels, they would do a far better job in much less time. But you see God not only wants to do something through us, He also wants to do something in us. That is why the hedgehogs show up in our lives. God uses them to encourage us to pray and to trust in Him and to depend on the Spirit for love and grace.
We will always have EGR people in our life (Extra Grace Required) and we know that this grace can only come from God. Difficult people and difficult circumstances can be used by the Spirit of God to help us grow and become more like Christ. Too often, however, when these difficulties come, our tendency is to pray for deliverance instead of growth, maturity and strength. We ask the Lord: “How can I get out of this?” instead of: “What can I get out of this?” When we do that, we miss the opportunities that God gives us to grow and mature.
I have learned the hardest possible way that when such circumstances or people come against me, I need to ask: “Where are You in this Lord?” Not, “Are You in this?” Because I know He is. I need to be strong enough to ask Him, “What are You doing with this situation? What is it You are trying to say to me, in and through this expedience?” I used to pray: “Lord, get me out of here fast!” I now try to pray: “Lord use me in this situation to do Your will and allow me to grow and mature in the process.”
Often you will feel like quitting and running away, but that’s the worst thing you can do. Running away will never solve your problems or meet the needs of your heart. You will probably meet the same situation and the same people, with different names in the next chapter of your journey. Why? Because God won’t let His servants run away. He is determined that His children are conformed to the image of His Son, and so He will keep working on us until He accomplishes His purposes.
It’s only human to want to run away from a tough situation. But friends it’s always too soon to quit. You will meet problem people and problem situations wherever you go, so make up your mind now to expect them, accept them and let God use them in your life as you continue to be His servant.
The devil wants to use those ‘porcupines’ and ‘EGRS’ as weapons to tear you down, but the Spirit can use them as tools to build you up. It’s your choice which will happen. If you persevere and endure and trust God to work, you’ll experience His grace in a wonderful way and you’ll be a better servant. In Christian ministry, problems with people are among the most difficult to bear, and the people who have and who cause the greatest problems are those who need us the most. That’s why we need to be channels of God’s love and grace – no matter how people may respond to our ministry. It may take years before they allow the Lord to change them and you may not even be around when it happens. That doesn’t matter, because the Lord is on the job, and He will finish what He has begun and He will receive the glory.
The same Jesus Who said, “Follow me,” also said, “If you want to be great in the kingdom of God, you must be the servant of all.” But as I wrap this up for now, let me stress again, if it is not a joy for you to serve, then something is wrong. If it is not a blessing, something is wrong. If your service, as hard and painful as it may be at times, is not fulfilling, rewarding and satisfying then something is wrong in your heart. Service is tough. Ask Jesus how tough it can be, and He will stretch out His hands on the cross and say, “This tough!” But it will also be a blessing and a joy. Which is why it says in Hebrews that it was for the joy set before Him, that Jesus endured the cross. He can, and He will give us that same servant heart and joy.