Servant's Heart: Improving Your Serve

Intro:

Continuing our series Disciple: Being and Making Followers of Jesus.

Passionately Committed. Have Extraordinary Love for Other People.

Today we will be discussing another Core quality of a Disciple. Turn in your Bibles to Mark 10:35.

Matthew 28:19–20 NIV

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

4. Today we will be discussing the core quality of having a Servant’s Heart.

5. Have you ever been to a restaurant and had bad service. It might have been slow, they forgot something, new worker. Regardless it was bad service. Can you remember the feelings you had? Maybe frustration or anger, maybe it was feelings of compassion or sympathy. We’ve all been there. I know there have been times in my life when I didn’t handle bad service really well. And some might agree that I might have been justified. Regardless I think its safe to say we all have seen bad service.

6. This isn’t something new. Humans have struggled with serving for centuries. Jesus had to address serving with the disciples numerous times. Lets take a look at one of these times.

Give background. Rich young ruler. Foretells His death. And now James and John have devised a request.

Mark 10:35–45 NIV

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked. They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” “We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.” When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

See even the disciples struggle with serving. James and John even though Jesus just told them that He was going to die for the third time, they want Jesus to do for them. And there request for Jesus to make them the greatest causes frustration with the other 10. But Jesus says to all of them whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. Jesus was saying if you want to be great you must have a Servant’s Heart.

Improving Your Serve

Now that we have seen God’s perspective on being a servant, I want to discuss this morning about how each of us can improve our serve.

I’ve tried to play tennis in the past, not in a serious way, but just to play with friends that really enjoy the game. I don’t win very often. It’s not because I’m not athletic enough, or because I don’t try hard, it really boils down to not having the proper technique.

Most of the time the game of tennis is won in the serve not in the volleys. If your serve is great, then you have a great weapon.

Now I understand none of us came to church today to learn how to play tennis. However there are some great takeaways we can use from the game of tennis to improve our serve as disciples.

Technique

In tennis they say its all about your technique. They say there are 7 parts to a great technique.

The stance

The grip

The Hitting Part

The Backswing and toss

Serve in 2 parts (In Sequence)

The Power Move

Follow Through

Disciples

How does tennis relate to us as Disciples? We can all improve our serve. Very Simple, hardest thing we will ever do.

Your stance. You have to pick a side. You have to determine to be passionately commited to Jesus.

Your Grip. Your understanding. We need an understanding of what our relationship with Jesus is. Is it just fire insurance, is Jesus our bail out program. I think we all agree our relationship with Jesus is neither of those things. However every disciple of Jesus must journey through this stage of understanding the relationship. If this is where you are, thats great. The fact is, if any of us are going to have a servants heart we must have understanding of the relationship with Jesus.

The Hitting Part. Application. This is where we trust Jesus and walk out what He has called us to. This is actually serving.

The Power Move. We have the Holy Spirit. Allowing the Holy Spirit to move in and through us will increase our ability to serve.

Follow through. Never give up. We will fail at times, we will give bad service at times, but as disciples we must never give up.

Serving

What does serving look like? Jesus summed it up for us.

Matthew 22:37–40 NIV

Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Simple. Hardest thing you will ever do. Love God and love others. If we truly love others we will have a servants heart. As long as we are taking breathe into our lungs we can work on improving our serve.

Conclusion

Here’s the deal, we are all called to serve. Will you make the commitment to improve your ability to serve. Can you imagine how improving your serve might impact your family, friends, and co-workers? Think of the conversations and questions that will arise when you improve your serve? Spiritual discussions about Jesus that might have seemed forced in the past with loved ones might change, loved ones might start asking questions. Co-workers might start asking what has changed. Think of the opportunities improving your serve might create. Jesus called us to this, its up to us if we are going to answer the call or not.

As a church lets commit to improving our serve. Our mission is to cultivate disciples, we will cultivate disciples by having a servants heart.