Joyce Meyer - Generosity and the Power of Serving Others - Part 1

TOPICS: Generosity, Serving Others, Servanthood

For the next couple of days, I wanna be talking to you about the power of serving others. Now, probably you're thinking, "Uh, uh, uh, I already do enough for other people". Well, you know, sometimes we do things for other people, we do it with an attitude in mind of, "Well, you know, I'm just a slave around here," or we take on a martyr attitude. We have to serve other people as unto the Lord. We're doing it unto him. And we have a tendency, and I'm sure you know this, we all have a tendency to be very selfish and self-centered. But God wants us to die to self, and he wants us to think more about others and value them even more than we do ourself.

Matter of fact, the Bible has a lot to say about others. Listen to this, "Watch over one another. Be friendly with one another. Bear with the faults of others. Be kind and tenderhearted toward one another. Forgive one another. Submit to one another. Admonish one another. Edify one another. Prefer one another. Exhort one another. Consider one another. Confess our faults to one another. Love one another out of a pure heart. Have compassion for one another. Use hospitality toward one another. And have fellowship with one another". Well, you know, a lot of people say, "You know, I'm good with going to church, but I just don't wanna get involved".

Why do they say that? Well, because many times in the past we've been hurt by people, and so we take this attitude, "Well, I'm just not gonna get involved". Or "If I do, I'm not gonna to get very deeply involved". But you know, we are the body of Christ, and we have to be involved with one another. If I hurt my foot, my hand immediately goes to help it. What if my hand said, "Nope, I don't wanna be involved". You know, if I've got a headache, my hand rubs my head. What if it said, "Nope, I don't wanna be involved". We need to be involved with one another. And I wanna talk to you today about the power of serving others.

In Matthew 20, verses 20-28, we see a story that is quite compelling. It says, "The mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked if he would do her a favor. 'What is it that you want'? He asked. And she said, 'Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right hand, the other at your left, in your kingdom'". Well, she wasn't bashful about asking, was she? "He said, 'You don't know what you're asking,' Jesus said to them. 'Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?' 'oh, we can,' they answered. Jesus said to them, 'you will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or my left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my father'".

You know, a lot of times we ask for things and we really don't have any idea what kind of changes are gonna need to take place in us and in our lives in order for us to have or do those things. And Jesus was really telling this woman when he said, "Can you drink the cup that I drink"? And when he said, "You have no idea what you're asking for". He meant you have no idea what it would take, what kinda sacrifices it would take to be in that position. Then "When the other ten heard this, they were indignant with the two brothers". Oh, I like that, you know. The two were being selfish and self-centered. Now the other ten are saying, "Well, who do you think you are that you should have those places"?

I'm sure they thought, each one of them thought, "We should have that place if anybody should". "Jesus called them together and said, 'you know that the rulers of the gentiles Lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. But it should not be that way with you. Instead...'", now, listen to this, "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant". So, Jesus is saying that truly great people are servants. Well, we don't look at it that way. We always look at being a servant as being a lowly position, but Jesus looks at it as being a high position. Jesus came as a servant.

The apostle Paul always said, "I, Paul, the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ". He always referred to himself first as a servant. I wonder how many people watching today have a servant's attitude. I have to even ask myself that, "Do I have the attitude of a servant"? You know, I'm the president of Joyce Meyer Ministries, and so I have the most authority of anybody here. But how do I see myself? Do I see myself as a servant? Am I willing to do anything that needs to be done? We all need to ask ourselves how we're doing in the area of serving other people. Well, what are some of the things that you can do to serve other people? I thought it would be good to give some suggestions. Ask God every morning when you pray, and I hope you do pray every morning, "Show me today what I can do to serve other people".

Now, some people, to be honest, they're just more given in that direction. They're anointed for the helps ministry, and they just automatically think of other people before they think of themselves. But I have to tell you that I'm not naturally inclined that way. I always say, "I'm in the helps ministry too. I want other people to help me". So, I have to do this on purpose. And there are many things that we have to do on purpose. The Bible says, for example, "Put on Jesus Christ". Well, what does that "Put on" mean? Well, that's an on-purpose type word. I always say, "I've never gone in my closet and had my clothes jump on my body. I have to pick them out and put them on on-purpose".

So, there are things that we can see that Jesus wants us to do that are not natural for us, but we can choose to do them. We can do them on purpose. So, here's some of the ways that you can be a servant. First of all, moms, let me say a word to you. Serve your family as unto the Lord. Don't look at it like, "Well, all I ever do is just wait on everybody around here," and have it as a self-pitying martyr-type attitude. Do it joyfully as unto the Lord. Do you know that anything can become spiritual if you do it unto the Lord? Everything you do can be spiritual if you do it unto the Lord, not just Bible reading or prayer, but absolutely anything. Here's a few ways that you can serve other people. You can pray for people. Give someone the parking place that you've been waiting for. That's an ouchie, isn't it?

Let someone with less groceries than you go in front of you in line. Let someone that's elderly go in front of you in line. Let someone that's pregnant go in front of you in line. Let a mom wrestling with two kids go in front of you in line. You say, "Well, I'm in a hurry, and I don't want to wait". Well, that's the sacrifice we make in order to serve other people. Pay someone's rent for the month that you know is having a difficult time financially. Always say, "Thank you". Compliment people. If you're having lunch with someone, pay the bill. You say, "Oh". Do you usually sit and wait for someone else to pay the bill? Be the first one to do it. If you're making coffee, see if somebody else wants a cup. You know, words are very good, but actions do speak louder than words. "Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave".

Now, the word "Slave" and the word "Servant" kinda come from the same Greek word in the New Testament, and they use them interchangeably. So, when we use the word "Slave" here, we're not talking about it in the negative way that we think about it today. We're not talking about somebody who's mistreated or treated in a way that shouldn't be treated. "Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many". Well, he is the ultimate servant. Always. He was here for other people. No matter what Jesus was doing, he always had time for other people. He always thought about other people. Well, the disciples are busy competing with one another for positions of authority, and Jesus reminds them that what they should be doing is serving one another and seeking to do that.

Do you know God is not impressed with the positions that we hold? Galatians 2:6 says, "Moreover, [no new requirements were made] By those who were reputed to be something, though what was their individual positions and whether they really were of importance or not makes no difference to me: God is not impressed with the positions that men hold and he is not partial and recognizes no external distinctions, those [i say] Who were of repute imposed no new requirements upon me [had nothing to add to my gospel, and from them I received no new suggestions]".

You know, when we meet somebody new, one of the first things we usually ask them is, "Well, what do you do for a living"? And it's interesting if they would say, "Well, I'm a janitor at such and such a school". We probably wouldn't be very impressed. But if they said, "Well, I'm a neurosurgeon". We would think, "Oh, well, that's somebody I really wanna know". And we need to understand that God is not impressed with the positions that we hold, and whatever we are gifted and anointed to do is a gift from God, and we need to thank him for it. We need to start looking at people that have jobs that we think are lowly in a different way, because there's no job that's lowly to God. He just wants us to do whatever he's asked us to do with a good attitude and do it unto him.

Most people wanna be the boss, or they wanna be in charge of something. And to be honest, being the boss is not as glorious as it may seem, because if you're the boss in a company with 600 people, you can never make one decision that's gonna make all 600 of them happy. I heard a pastor say the other day, "I have 1,000 members in my church, but I have 1,000 bosses, and I get 1,000 different opinions". So, with every privilege comes responsibility. That's why Jesus said, "You don't know what you're asking for". Think twice before you ask for a position. Make sure that you're ready to meet the requirements before you ask for the job. I wonder how many of us pray regularly for opportunities to serve.

Have you ever just taken five minutes and sat quietly in the presence of God and just asked him, "God, what can I do today to serve someone else"? You know, my husband usually makes the bed in the morning. And this morning, I walked by the bed, noticed that it was unmade, and I thought, "You know, I'm gonna make the bed today so Dave doesn't have to do it". Well, that's probably because I was studying for this message, but I hope that I learn more and more to do things for other people. I do things for people all the time by teaching them the word, but I look at that more like that's my job, and God wants me to behave in my everyday life like I teach everybody else to behave.

And so, I'm glad I'm teaching this today because I wanna be refreshed in this area of always looking for ways that I can build other people up and make other people happy. I've said before, we should have a goal to put a smile on at least three faces every day. And you can do that by just giving a small gift or giving a compliment or just, "You look nice". Any little thing can mean a lot to somebody else. Matter of fact, sometimes it is the smallest things that mean the most to people. The word "Servant" defined in the Greek presents the idea of "Subjection without bondage". If I am your servant, I can submit to you without feeling that I have lost my freedom. I love that. I can submit to you without feeling that I have lost my freedom.

I have a few people, actually two, that I can think of who when I ask them to do something, their answer is always, "My pleasure". I love that. That just sounds so good, so much better than, "Okay," or "Yeah," or whatever, you know. We need to be happy to do things for other people, and when they ask us to do them, don't make 'em feel like we're really doing 'em a big favor by doing it, but be glad to do it. We are to be servants of God and of Christ. First and foremost, we serve people as a way of serving God and Christ.

1 Peter 2:16, "[live] As free people, [yet] Without employing your freedom as a pretext for wickedness: but [live at all times] As servants of God". You know, being free doesn't mean that you get to do anything you wanna do anytime you wanna do it. It means that you're free not to have to hurt other people. You're free not to have to sin. Yes, you can be free to do the opposite, but not if you have an attitude of serving God and serving people. Paul said he was a bond slave, that he was compelled to preach. He belonged to Christ. That is all he cared about. He said, "If I can only finish my course with joy, that's the only thing that matters to me". He said, "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. In him I live and move and have my being".

You know, being a Christian is about a lot more than just going to church on a Sunday and sitting there maybe not even really listening, being there for maybe an hour, going home and not thinking about God the rest of the week. We are all called into the ministry. You don't have to have a reverend, or a doctor, or a bishop, in front of your name. We're all servants of God and we're all called into the ministry everywhere you go. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:20 that, "We are all ambassadors of God". And I love what the Amplified Bible says. It says that, "God is making his appeal to the world through us. We are his personal representatives". And we want people to be reconciled to God through our example to them.

Ephesians 6:5-7, "Servants (slaves), be obedient to those who are your physical masters, having respect for them and eager concern to please them, in singleness of motive and with all your heart, as [service] To Christ [himself]". So, he's saying, "Don't do it as a man-pleaser. Have a desire to please them but do it as unto the Lord". See, it just puts a whole different connotation on serving if you look at it like "Lord, I'm doing this for you". Then you don't feel like that you're being taken advantage of but you're doing it with the right motive.

And our motives are so important. I love to talk about motives because God doesn't really care so much about what we do as why we do it. If I do something for somebody else but I've got a bad attitude, if somebody invites me to a party and I go but I really don't wanna go and I just go because I don't want them to get upset and then I'm talking about it behind their back to other people and saying, "I really don't wanna go to this but I'm gonna go because I feel like I have to". Well, there's no reward in that. But even if you don't wanna go but you wanna show love to that person, you can say, "God, I'm gonna do this for you and I'm gonna do it with a good attitude and a smile on my face".

And then we certainly don't go behind their back telling other people how much we don't wanna do it. He says, do it "Not in the way of eye-service [as if they were watching you] And only to please men, but do it as servants (or slaves) of Christ, doing the will of God heartily and with your whole soul". You know, it's so important that we are obedient to God out of a right heart and a right motive. Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey me". And we need to have a reverential fear and awe of God. And by that I don't mean being afraid that he's going to hurt us but knowing that God is God and that he has all power and that when he tells us to do something, it's always for our own benefit and we should always do it without having a bad attitude.

If Jesus is Lord, then the answer to anything he asks you to do always must be, "Yes". It's "Yes, Lord". You can't say, "No, Lord," and him be your Lord. The, "No," always means "You're not my Lord" because if he is the Lord of all in your life, then all you can ever say to anything that he asks you to do is "Yes". And you know, I'm just wondering, talking to you today, sitting in your homes or maybe in your office, wherever you happen to be, I'm just wondering what things you might have in your life that you have not done yet that you know God has told you to do? Or what things you might still be doing that you know God has told you not to do? Well, you know what, today is the day to repent, to admit to God that "I haven't been obedient to you and I'm sorry," and to repent means to turn around and go in the other direction. So that means you make a full turn and you do the things that he's told you to do or you stop doing the things that he has told you not to do.

There is such a happy, wonderful life waiting for you, but we cannot be disobedient to God and also have his blessings in our life. You can't hide anything from God. God sees everything, he knows everything, he knows what we're gonna do before we ever even do it. So, we need to be obedient to God because he loves us, and Jesus paid such a great price for us to have our sins forgiven and our names written in the lamb's book of life. And the way that we can say, "I appreciate all you've done for me, Jesus," is by being obedient to him and by serving other people. You know, if we live to serve God, if that's your purpose and your motive every day when you get up, if we live to serve God, it won't matter to us what he assigns us to do. It won't matter if we're doing something that the world thinks is great or if we're doing something that the world thinks is lowly because to be honest, it really doesn't matter what the world thinks.

The only thing that matters is what God thinks. Our reputation here is of very little importance compared to our reputation in heaven. Galatians 5:13, "You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But don't use your freedom to indulge the flesh: rather, serve one another humbly in love". Well, there's that word love. And you know, that is the main word in the Bible, especially in the New Testament. God is love. And our whole purpose of everything that we do is so we learn to love. 1 Corinthians 13 tells us what love is, "Love is patient, love is kind, love is humble. Love means that we use self-control".

Love, it should be our main goal in life. And love is always going to involve doing things for other people. It's going to involve giving, being generous in our giving, and it's going to involve serving one another. What can you do for somebody else today? I want you to think about it. When the program is over, I want you to take some time and sit and ask yourself how much you do for other people with a good attitude. Or, are you perhaps angry right now at somebody else because of what they have not done for you? Well, you need to forgive them. Maybe they haven't done enough for you, but if you're just angry about it and you're not doing anything for anybody else, you're not sowing good seed. But if you forgive them and you ask God, "What can I do for somebody else"? Then you're sowing good seed and you can reap a harvest on the seed that you have sown.