Identity: You Are His Servant (Week 5)
I. More Than A Title
A. 1 Peter 2:9
1. Many people love titles because they find their identity in their title. Their title is more than a description of what they do. In their minds their title is a description of who they are.
2. Since we find much of our identity in our title, we tend to drift toward titles that make us sound important. Fancy titles give us a greater sense of identity. They contribute to our sense of self-worth.
3. What title should we be most proud to claim? a. Hint: What title did the early Christians claim as their own?
B. Hi, I Am A Doulos
a. The word for bondservant in the original language is “doulos”, which literally means slave. A “doulos” is a slave who is willingly bound to another.
b. Paul and Timothy could have chosen other titles to describe their identity. …But they chose the title “doulos.”
c. In the Jewish culture, someone who fell on hard times could choose to sell himself as a slave to someone. If a person was deep in debt, he could sell himself to the person whom he owed money. It was often a wise and logical choice because your master was required to take care of your needs and treat you well.
d. This was not slavery as we have imagined slavery; masters treated their servants as family. Many viewed selling themselves as servants as a viable option to provide for their family and survive.
e. God instituted a law among His people that the seventh year all debts would be completely forgiven. People who sold themselves to wealthy businessmen would be freed after six years of service. God gave instructions to His people detailing how to free servants who sold themselves into service.
f. Servants were given the option to stay with their master, to continue in the service of the person who bought them. Many chose to stay because life with their master was so much better than life elsewhere. They loved the mast and his family. the could not imagine living elsewhere. they could not imagine working for anyone else. So the servant could say, “I don’t want to leave you. I want to stay.”
g. At that point a special ceremony took place. The servant would place his ear against a door, and the master would take an awl, which is a small piercing device, and pierce the earlobe of the servant. Through this special ceremony the master and the servant entered into a special relationship, a bond that lasted their entire life. The servant was marked for life as the willing and grateful servant of his master.
h. The marking was important so that everyone who saw the servant and the master together would know that the servant chose to stay and serve. The servant was with his master out of love and gratitude, not obligation.
2. Like Paul and Timothy, you are a bondservant of Christ.
c. …you stay with your Master because you love Him. While you serve because you love, you also know that true greatness is found in serving your Master.
II. Serving Is Greatness
A. An Empty Life Apart from Your Master
1. Do you remember how empty life was away from your Master, apart from a relationship with God? Is not greatness found with your Master?
a. Psalm 84:10
2. Unfortunately we sometimes forget that true greatness is serving our Master. We often suffer from memory loss as Christians, forgetting where greatness is found and living confused and misdirected lives.
3. …we often listen to the wrong voices and are marked by the wrong influences, our daily lives are tragic attempts to please ourselves. The bombardment of messages telling us that we exist for ourselves contributes to our spiritual amnesia. And the messages detailing narcissistic methods to enjoy life are plentiful.
a. Mark 9:35
4. God’s kingdom is an upside-down kingdom. In God’s economy, true greatness comes from serving. For Jesus, “last is the new first”. If you choose to be a servant now, you will be first for all of eternity. If you choose to serve in this brief life, you will be rewarded for all of eternity.
B. The Example of Jesus
1. John 13:1-5
2. Luke 22:24
a. During the meal the disciples argue about who is the greatest.
b. The hands that created the world washes feet. The hands that fashioned humanity rubs dirt off grungy and nasty feet. God is on His knees cleaning the feet of His twelve disciples. …Including Judas.
a. As a follower of Christ, you are challenged to wash feet. Not literally, but figuratively. Christ asks you to serve others, to embrace your identity as a servant. He has handed you a towel and has given you a basin. …Servants serve. A nonserving Christian is an oxymoron…
C. The Serving High
1. Jesus told His disciples that they would be blessed if they served. An you will be blessed if you serve, both eternally and presently. Eternally you will receive rewards because of your faithful service. Presently, a supernatural high comes with serving.
2. Experiencing God overflow out of your life to serve others trumps anything the world has to offer. There is a blessing in serving that cannot be experienced any other way.
D. The Reality of A Servant
1. Serve the Master’s Family
a. While God desires for you to serve the world around you, the Master also asks you to serve His family. And the church is God’s family. By “church,” I mean God’s people, not a building, denomination, creed, confession, or organization. The church is the gathering of the Master’s family in specific locations all around the world. …the church is the bride of Christ… the church is the family of the Master. And the Master asks us to serve His family.
b. God has given you a spiritual gift, and one of the reasons of your gifting is so that God’s family will benefit from your contribution. The family suffers if you choose not to serve. The family suffers if you forget you are a marked servant.
2. Manage God’s Grace
a. Serving is management of God’s grace.
i. 1 Peter 4:10
b. Since we are God’s servants. He has entrusted us with His resources. We are His stewards, His managers, His administrators. Not only do we manage God’s finances, creation, and time; but we also manage His grace.
c. God has entrusted His grace to you for you to mange. When you serve, you administer God’s grace to other people. AS you serve others, you dispense God’s love and compassion. You are the manager of God’s greatest resource — His grace. And you are responsible to administer it through serving.
3. Enjoy Your Unique Contribution
a. As God’s bond servant, your service is unique. Your contribution to the Master’s kingdom and family is uniquely customized to your calling, personality, gifting, and stage of life.
b. While God’s grace is administered through His servants, His grace is administered in various forms. Because we are different, with unique spiritual gifts, God’s mercy is expressed in a variety of ways.
c. There is a unique contribution that only you can make. There is a specific way that God’s grace is going to be distributed through you. Each of us plays a critical role in God’s desire to reveal His glory through the church (Eph. 3:10), and your Master desires your unique and specific contribution.
The reality: You are a servant.
The response: Serve the Master.
*This FOCUS University Ministry Bible Study is based Identity: Who You Are in Christ by Eric Geiger. All direct quotes are in italics above.
[...] Gifts Test In Week 5 of our “Identity” study, we studied “You Are His Sevant”, and in that study we emphasized the importance of knowing and using our unique and individual [...]
Spiritual Gifts Test « Eagerly Watching said this on July 6, 2009 at 9:30 pm |
[...] Gifts Test In Week 5 of our “Identity” study, we studied “You Are His Sevant”, and in that study we emphasized the importance of knowing and using our unique and individual [...]