Pastor's Corner

Let me ask you a question. What’s the difference between a servant and a volunteer? A volunteer picks and chooses when and even whether to serve. A servant serves no matter what. A volunteer serves when convenient; a servant serves out of commitment. Someone said it well: “The servant does what he is told when he is told to do it. The volunteer does what he wants to do when he feels like doing it.”

Friends, Jesus didn’t recruit volunteers, Jesus never asked His followers to give a few hours of their day off. He did call them to give everything for the sake of the kingdom…most church volunteers have to be cornered, coddled and convinced that their participation won’t take up too much of their time…the church doesn’t need more volunteers who give away spare time. We need servants whose lives belong to the Lord.” 1 Peter 2:16 challenges us to “…live as servants of God.” We could say it like this: The issue is not whether we will serve but where we will serve.

One day Jesus revealed the importance of serving without being thanked for it. I should warn you ahead of time that this passage is probably not what you want to hear. It’s quite a difficult and demanding little story.

1. A servant’s work is not always sensational (7a). Check out the first part of verse 7: “Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after sheep.” The word Jesus uses in this story for servant is doulos, or a “bond-slave.” This basically means that the servant is attached to the owner. This particular farmer probably only had one servant who had to multi-task throughout the day. He’d do the back-breaking work of plowing and then the wearisome work of watching sheep. His muscles would scream and then he may have screamed out of boredom. And then he’d get up the next day and do it all over again. Kind of sounds like some of our jobs, doesn’t it? My guess is that over time, his daily responsibilities became routine and his tasks were not thrilling.

Let me state the obvious. Sometimes serving is not very sensational because we’re called to be faithful in some pretty ordinary tasks. Serving involves exertion and often exacts a price. If you find yourself strutting about how much you serve, you better check your motives. Sometimes we recruit people to a ministry by telling them how fun and easy it is to serve. We need to stop doing this because serving is strenuous and not always sensational.

2. Serving must be sustained (7b-8). After working all day, the servant comes back to the Master’s house. He’s probably tired and hungry but he still has work to do. Here’s the principle. A servant’s service may change locale and the specific job description may be in flux but the truth of the matter is that our serving must be sustained. The issue is not whether we will serve but where we will serve. Actually, the job description for a servant is very simple and straightforward: “Do everything your Master commands.”

Let’s listen to how Jesus said it in the second half of verse 7 and verse 8: “Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’”? The servant moves from outdoors to indoors, from daylight to dusk and from hard labor to home life. He goes from the fields to fixing food. Don’t miss this truth. A servant serves whenever, wherever, for whomever, doing whatever it takes.

3. Serving is a sacrifice (9). After going all out and working from sunup to sundown, the servant is no doubt tired. A word of appreciation would mean so much to him, but it never comes. Look at verse 9: “Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?” The implied answer is a strong “no.” The word “thank” means to have gratitude or to be grateful. The idea is if the master expresses gratitude it could be construed as a debt that must somehow be settled to even the score. This is absurdly arrogant as Job 22:2 points out: “Can a man be of benefit to God?” We can’t impress God in such a way that He will feel obligated to give us some special honor.

Some of us think that God somehow owes us for all that we’ve done for Him. He doesn’t favor us especially because we’ve done something special – we’re servants and therefore we must serve. The Pharisees believed that their deeds put God in their debt. This kind of thinking gets us in deep trouble because God doesn’t owe us anything. In fact, according to 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, God doesn’t owe us, He owns us: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”

We are not entitled to a word of thanks or appreciation. Our focus is often on our feelings whereas this servant was focused on just doing his job. Too many of us serve with way too many expectations. This gets us frustrated and angry and mad and we determine to never serve again because no one thanked us, or because it didn’t go like we wanted it to. Remember that God does not need us to serve Him; it’s our duty and delight and He is under no obligation to reward us.

4. Serving is satisfying (10). Jesus concludes this story with some corrective words in verse 10.

Instead of having a feeling of entitlement, we need to see ourselves as unworthy servants. The idea in the Greek is that we are “unworthy of any praise.” It means “no one owes me anything extra.” It’s like when we pay our taxes and we don’t receive a thank you note from the government – we’ve simply done what was expected of us. Likewise, we shouldn’t expect an extra reward for expected service. We’re to recognize our unworthiness and realize our obligation. Think of it this way – the Lord of glory has you in His service. In that sense, serving is very satisfying because it’s an honor and privilege!

Serve the Lord with Gladness!

Pastor Corey J. Neal