May I Serve You?

May I Serve You?

Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.

Luke 22:27

Even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Mark 10:45

Human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need.

Acts 17:25

When you see a Help Wanted sign in the window of a business, you know that the business is looking for someone to go to work for them. But Jesus doesn’t hang a Help Wanted sign in the window of the world. Instead, he holds up a big sign that says Help Available!

Jesus didn’t come to earth to recruit workers. He came to do a great work for us, which he accomplished by living a perfect life and dying in our place. He didn’t come because he needs us but because we need him.

We tend to rush up to God so certain that he will be delighted with all we’ve done and intend to do for him. And certainly he loves a heart that desires to please him. But first, we have to see that his greatest aim is not to be served by us but to serve us. He wants us to place our faith not in what we can do for him but in what he has done for us. And then he wants us, out of love for him and a desire to be like him, to serve people around us.

The Christian life is not about doing for God. It is about receiving from God. God serves us by giving us acceptance, forgiveness, freedom, and joy—so much so that these qualities spill out of us into the lives of other people as we serve them the way Christ has served us.

DISCUSSION STARTERS

What does it mean to serve somebody?

Would the other people in your family say that you are most often a person who looks for ways to serve, or do you look to be served?

What are some ways you see family members and friends serving others?