Mentality of Servanthood

The teachings and example of Jesus is convicting.  As a church we are seeking to be a community that is centered on following his ways, but although that may be simple to understand, it's not easy to do.  And especially when it comes to following his humility and mentality of servanthood.

If there is anyone in the history of the world that had the right to be self centered it was Jesus.  Yet he was solely focused on serving others - and he did it to the fullest extreme of denying himself for the benefit of others.

No small shoe to fill there!

Okay, so we are trying to follow Jesus practically through serving and we say we want to "be the body to the body" and that we also want to "be the body to the world."  And we say this because this type of selfless living is what Jesus taught and modeled for us....

...but let's be honest here.  To focus on others, all the time, is not easy.

We may not want to be the center of attention all the time, but we certainly don't mind accolades or being noticed for what we do.  In fact, if we're serving in some capacity we may actually think we deserve accolades.  We usually don't word it that way though.  Instead we say we just want to be "appreciated."

BUT, if we're not careful that's simply a nice way of saying we should be noticed and recognized for how we serve others.  In other words, we feel like we deserve credit for serving others.

Is that wrong to think this way?

Well, if we take the teachings of Jesus seriously, it very well may be.  It's certainly not wrong to thank someone for something they have done (we all try to do that) and it sure does feel good to have someone thank us for something we did!  But if we somehow think we deserve to be recognized for how we serve it can get real messy.  This mentality could show us that we are coming from a place of entitlement rather than servanthood.  And this mentality can even lead us to a place of bitterness when we're not noticed the way we think we should be.  We can become proud for the way we are serving and "denying ourselves" and therefore feel like we should be esteemed...

...which seems to be exactly the opposite from a servant mentality, right?

Ha!  How many times have we all fallen into that trap? :-)  Being a follower of Jesus, if we are truly seeking to be like him, is not easy.

Well, in the passage we studied yesterday (Mark 9:30-41) we saw Jesus teaching the disciples about servanthood.  But their mentality wasn't even close to Jesus'.  In fact, they were trying to figure out which one of them was the greatest amongst this "elite" group of Jesus followers.

Jesus cuts to the heart and tells them they should be last if they want to be first.  The point here is that they should serve, not seeking any attention or accolades (which puts them in the front of attention), but serving the lowly, which brings very little if any amount of esteeming.  That's where we all should be.  Caring for others from a mentality of servanthood.  Serving them, not indirectly ourselves.

Nobody is above anything.

Challenge: Join me this week in praying for our church body.  Let's ask God to give us more of a Christ-like mentality of servanthood.  One that increasingly becomes less about ourselves and more about others.  A mentality that leads us to giving more of our time, more of our resources...more of ourselves than we ever have before toward serving others.  And, let's ask God to give us joy as we do so!  There is so much power behind a community of people working together, praying together and giving together.  Will you join me in praying?

If you missed the message yesterday, you can listen to it here.