The Definition of a Servant

Hey, good morning Familia. We're so glad you can join us online. It may look different today, but we still serve the same God. So come on, let's get ready to worship. There's a praise that we release. There's an anthem of the free. When you know what you've been rescued from. Worship fills your lungs. It's the sound of the redeemed. Lift your hands if you've been forgiven. Brought into the land of the living. There is freedom in this house. Come on, lift your voice. Lift your voice. If he's been faithful, shout it out. Tell him you're grateful. There is freedom in this house. There's a grave where we used to be. Before grace, before grace changed everything. If you know that you've been born again, come and say amen. It's the sound of the redeemed, yeah. Lift your hands if you've been forgiven. Brought into the land of the living. There is freedom in this house. Yes there is. Lift your voice if he's been faithful. Shout it out. Tell him you're grateful. There is freedom in this house. See the chains on the floor. Prison doors open wide. All I hope is restored. What was dead brought back to life. See the chains on the floor. Prison doors open wide. All I hope is restored. What was dead brought back to life. Lift your hands if you've been forgiven. Brought into the land of the living. There is freedom in this house. Yes there is. Lift your voice if he's been faithful. Shout it out. Tell him you're grateful. There is freedom in this house. Come on, sing hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. There is freedom in this house. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. There is freedom in this house. Yes Lord we're so thankful for your presence right where we are Jesus. So right now we surrender our hearts. No matter what it looks like, where we're sitting at, no matter who's next to us, we're here to worship you Lord. Father you are the center of our lives. We focus on you Lord. And we worship you. Maybe we made this complicated. More than it was ever meant to be. Hasn't it always been about the same thing? So Lord bring us back to simple things. You be the center of it all. My heart belongs to you. My savior all in all. You're the one I hold on to. For the beauty of your name, my soul will live. Teach us to discern the moment, when to serve and when to sit here at your feet. Keep us awake to what's important, just like Mary chose a better thing. Say, You be the center. And You be the center of it all.

My heart belongs to You, my Savior all in all. You're the one I hold on to for the beauty of Your name. My soul will live to say, Jesus, I love You. Say, You are the center. Oh, You are the center of it all. My heart belongs to You, my Savior all in all. You're the one I hold on to for the beauty of Your name. My soul will live to say, Jesus, I love You. And oh, how I love You. Oh, how I love You. Jesus, I love You. And oh, how I love You. Oh, and oh, how I love You. Jesus, I love You. In my whole life for Your glory, my whole world for You only, every day for the honor of Your name. And if my days tell a story, let it be of You only, every day for the honor of Your name. In my whole life for Your glory, my whole world for You only, every day for the honor of Your name. And if my days tell a story, let it be of You only, every day for the honor of Your name. Oh, how I love You. And oh, how I love You. Jesus, I love You. And oh, how I love You. Oh, yes, we love You. And oh, how I love You. Come on, let's sing it out, my whole life. In my whole life for Your glory, my whole world for You only,

every day for the honor of Your name. And if my days tell a story, let it be of You only, every day for the honor of Your name. In my whole life for Your glory, my whole world for You only, every day for the honor of Your name. And if my days tell a story, let it be of You only, every day for the honor of Your name. Say, I love You. Oh, how I love You. And oh, how I love You. Jesus, I love You. And oh, how I love You. Yeah. Oh, how I love You. Jesus, I love You. Come on, sing. And oh, how I love You. You're so beautiful, Jesus. And oh, how I love You. Jesus, I love you, and oh, how I love you It's not like you, Lord And oh, how I love you, Jesus, I love you Oh, for you are the center of it all My heart belongs to you, my Savior all in all You're the one I hold on to For the beauty of your name, my soul will live to say Jesus, I love you, my soul will live to say Jesus, I love you, my soul will live to say Jesus, I love you Thank you, Lord, we love you so much. We worship your holy name. Hey, thanks for joining us today. I'm Dan Sutherland, one of the pastors here at the local church. So good to worship together, so good to give together, so good to give attention to God's word together. We're giving church, it's what we do. Thanks for your generosity.

There's a lot of ways that you can give. You can text to give, you can do it online, you can show up at local church and do it live. Hey, thanks for being a part of what God is doing here. We're starting a new series today, but we're starting it with some interesting circumstances. If you haven't noticed, there's a brownout going in portions of Broward County right now. And of course, our location here on Flamingo Road is one of the places it's browned out. We have limited lights, we have limited sound, we have limited production. But you know what? We're going straight ahead. So thanks for joining us online. Thanks for flexing with us. We start a new series today. And the series is called Made for More. I did an interesting thing this week. I took the word more and I ran it all through the scripture. Looked at the twelve hundred plus times the word more is used. And here's some of what I discovered. First of all, we found out that we are made for more. God has more in store for us than we can even imagine. So write these points down. If you're taking notes with the app, you can fill them in. God is more than we can imagine. Ecclesiastes 3.20 says Christ is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think. Not only is God more, but God has more for us than we can imagine. Second Corinthians 2.9, one of my life verses, says no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived all that God has prepared for him. Here's the catch. To have more of God, I must have less of me. Think about our lives like this bottle. If I want it to be full of God, then there's only a little space for me. Most of us are full of ourselves. Therefore, there's only a little bit of space for God. John 3 says he must increase. I must decrease. And to experience all that God has for me, I must become a servant. That's what this series is about. The series is called Made for More. Improving your serve. And listen to the scripture it's based on. Jesus said these words, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant. Whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your servant. Just as I did not come to be served, but to serve and to give my life a ransom for many.

We are made for more. How do we improve our serve? That's the direction we're going the next five weeks. I love this series and this idea of more. It takes me back to when I first came to Christ. Some of us come to Christ gradually over a period of time. Some of us come to Christ all at once. I mean, it is instantaneous. Life changes fast and furious. That's what happened to me. I don't do much of anything gradually. I'm either all in or I'm not in at all. When I came to Christ as a 17-year-old, I wanted everything He had for me. I wanted my friends to know about Christ. I wanted my family to know about Christ. to know about Christ. And I decided I'm going to become a leader. I'm going to influence people. I'm going to study what Scripture says so I could be a great leader for Jesus. Here's what I found. Scripture doesn't talk much about leadership. In fact, what Scripture says is if you want to be a great leader, become a great servant. If you want to have great influence, serve other people. Here's what it points to. The kingdom of God is built on upside-down principles. It takes the way the world works and it flips it. Things like the first will be last. That's upside-down. Love your enemies. That's upside-down. Pray for those who hurt you. That's upside-down. Here's the way it works with service. Greatness in the kingdom of God equals serving. That's what Jesus said. You want to be great in the kingdom. That's a good thing. You want to have influence for Jesus, impact for Jesus. That's a good thing. You don't do it by leading. You do it by serving. You can be a great leader because you're more talented, or more persuasive, or more opinionated, or quite honestly, even because you're more manipulative. Becoming a great servant happens when we think less of ourselves. Becoming a great servant happens when we put the interest of others above our own interest. Becoming a great servant happens when we develop a how can I serve you attitude. So our title for this teaching today is the definition of a servant. Here's the definition we're going to use for the next five weeks. So what is a servant? A servant is someone who serves God by serving others in His name. We serve God by serving others in His name. Now sometimes I have thought

wouldn't it be easier if Jesus just came down here in the flesh so we could serve Him? In fact, that's what He has done. Check out what Jesus said about this. You were blessed by my Father to inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to see me. And then they will answer saying, Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And Jesus answered them, truly I say to you as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. The way we serve God is by serving others in His name. Think back to the last time you did something for somebody that had no chance to pay it back. You were extra kind or you were extra generous or you went out of your way to forgive someone. You remember that sensation that happened? How good it felt? That's the favor of God. That's the blessing of God. This is why Scripture says it's more blessed to give than to receive. It's more blessed to serve than to be served. It's more blessed when we're used by God to help others. That's the idea. Now here's a side note. Check this out. Serving others is very counter cultural. Culture tells us take care of you. Culture tells us you're number one. Culture tells us it's all about you, but it's not. Check this quote out. The most miserable people are those who care only about themselves, understand only their own troubles, and see only their own perspective. Is that true or what? Those are the most miserable people in the world. They care only about themselves, understand only their own troubles, see only their own perspective. Here's the reality. We say it often at the local church. Life is not about you. If you're with somebody right now, watch it online, turn to them and say life's not about you. It's not about you. It takes some of us a lifetime to figure that out. It's not about us, not about what I want, what I need, what I desire. It's about God and the way I make it about God is by serving others. We'll look at this scripture more in the weeks ahead, but

listen to it from Philippians 2. Be humble. Thinking of others is better than yourselves. Don't look out for your own interests, but take an interest in others too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had, though He was God. He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, He gave up His divine privileges. He took the humble position of a servant. He humbled Himself in obedience to God. All of us would like to make a difference in this world. We want to leave a legacy. We want to have an impact. We want to have influence for good. But we often ask, what can I do? What difference can I make? Because we can't find anything big to do, we often do nothing at all. Because we cannot make a big splash in the world, we make no splash at all. Get in the game. Make a difference. Decide to count for Jesus by serving others. We're going to talk about how for the next five weeks. I will tell you something personal about me. I am driven for more. I am driven for more. I admit it. I'm driven for more. I'm the kind of person that if one piece of key lime pie is good, let's go for two. If one week of vacation is good, oh man, let's make it two weeks of vacation. If a bigger house is better, let's get a bigger house. If a newer car is an improvement, let's get the newer car. We're driven for more.

Different kinds of more, but we're all driven for more. That's not the problem. The problem is not that we're driven for more. The problem is which more? Which more are we driven for? We are made for more. And the way we get there is by choosing to serve. That's the challenge today. Will we choose to serve? Next five weeks, we're going to look at how we do that. What Jesus teaches us about serving, the heart of a servant, the attitude of a servant, the lifestyle of a servant. Here's the thing that we want to look toward. Will you be willing to make a difference? Will you be willing to serve? Most of us heard the starfish story at some point in life. It won't be new to you, but I hope the application today sticks and hits home. You've probably heard the story, big storm on the coast. And the next morning, there's an old man walking the beach. The storm has passed, but he notices that the beach is littered with thousands of starfish washed ashore, just sitting there in the sand after the water has receded. And coming far away, he sees a young man. And the young man seems to be stopping and picking things up and flinging them back into the ocean. When they get close enough, the old man says to the young man, hey, can I ask what you're doing? And the young boy responds, I'm throwing starfish into the ocean. The storm last night washed them on shore. They have no way to get back in the water. They will die if they're left here. I'm throwing them back so that they can live.

The old man looked at the young boy and said, I'm afraid you're not going to be able to make much of a difference. There are thousands of starfish on this shore. The boy bent down, picked up another starfish, threw it back into the ocean, looked the old man in the eye and said, I just made a difference for that one. That's the point. Don't let the thought that you can't do enough keep you from doing something. Would you write this in your notes, put it in the app as we wrap up today? I cannot do everything. I can do something. I can do something and I choose to do the something that I can do. That's how this works. I cannot do everything. I can do something. I will do the something that I can do. Dan Sutherland cannot change the spiritual landscape of South Florida by himself. But I can do my part and you can do your part. I can do my part and you can do your part. I can do my part and your local church can do their part and other churches in the area can do their part. And together, we can make a difference as we serve God by serving others. Here's a great verse that I'll leave you with for us to think on. I've become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. today, here it is. No one can serve everyone, but everyone can serve someone. Here's a simple way to start this week. Ask God to give you one person to serve this week. One person. You may find them today, you may find them in the office tomorrow morning, you may find them in your neighborhood. Find one person to serve this week and serve them. Make a difference for that one. Let me pray us out. Thanks for joining us today at the local church. Father, thank you that you sent your son to serve you by serving us and that he gave his life as a ransom

for every one of us. Father, thank you that you now invite us to join you in that same kind of service. We choose to serve you today by serving whoever you put in our path this week. In the name of Christ, the servants of all, we make this prayer. Amen.