This document discusses the motivations and importance of Christian service. It outlines five main motivations for serving: obedience to God, gratitude for God's blessings, forgiveness of sins, humility like Jesus, and love for God. True service is characterized by indifference to rewards or tasks, willingness to serve hiddenly or unappreciated, and making service a lifestyle rather than temporary acts. The document also addresses reasons people may avoid serving like lack of adventure or pride, and consequences if the church lacks servants. It provides tips for developing a servant's heart like recognizing one's own weakness and surrendering to God's will.

1. Serving

2. Service
Christian Service is seeing a need and meeting
that need for the glory of Jesus Christ

3. Motivations for Serving
1. Motivated by Obedience
2. Motivated by Gratitude
3. Motivated by Forgiveness
4. Motivated by Humility
5. Motivated by Love

4. Motivated by Obedience
Because we want to obey God, we should be
willing to do whatever He calls us to do
Deuteronomy 13:4

5. Motivated by Gratitude
1 Samuel 12:24
“When the fire of service to God grows cold, consider
what great things the Lord has done for you.”
Gratitude for His blessings
The greatest blessing = being a child of God for all eternity

6. Motivated by Forgiveness
“The child of God works not for life, but from life; he
does not work to be saved, he works because he is
saved.” – Charles Spurgeon
Luke 7:47 – “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are
many, are forgiven – for she loved much. But he who
is forgiven little, loves little.”

7. Motivated by Humility
 Jesus, the perfect Son of God was also the perfect picture of a
servant – John 13:12-16
 If He, being God, was willing to serve in that way we should
not think of ANY task He calls us to as being “too small”
 A Christian should view nothing as beneath them
 If we are to be like Christ, we must be a servant like Him
 Philippians 2:3-4
 Philippians 2:5-11
 Are you willing to serve even if it goes unappreciated?

8. Motivated by Love
John 14:15 – “If you love Me, you will keep My
commandments.”
Our love for God should motivate us in every part of
life

9. Service
By serving strangers there are times when we may
have been ministering to angels (Hebrews 13:2)
Anytime we serve a person (particularly the ‘least of
these’) we are serving Jesus Christ Himself (Matt.
25:31-46)

10. Service
Self-Righteous Service
 Enjoys serving when it is
something “big”
 Requires external rewards –
needs to be seen and appreciated
 Picks and chooses whom to serve
 When they ‘feel like it’
 Temporary
True Service
 Finds it hard to distinguish the
small from the large – welcomes
all opportunities to serve
 Content to serve in hiddenness
 Indiscriminate in its ministry
 When there is a need
 Lifestyle of service

11. Reasons We Don’t Serve
 Lack of Adventure
 “In some ways we would prefer to hear Jesus’ call to deny father and
mother, houses and land for the sake of the Gospel, than His word to
wash feet. Radical self-denial gives the feel of adventure. If we forsake
all, we even have the chance of glorious martyrdom. But in service we
are banished to the mundane, the ordinary, the trivial.”
 Pride
 Laziness

12. Consequences in the Absence of
Servanthood
The opposite of a servant’s heart is a self-seeking
heart
Failure to get involved in ministry
Burnout in those who are ministering
The church fails to accomplish all that it has been
called to do because of a lack of ministering people

13. Developing a Servant’s Heart
 Recognize your own weakness and need (2 Cor. 12:9-10)
 Surrender to God’s will
 We must be willing to sacrifice
 Take advantage of spontaneous acts of kindness
 Plan on serving

14. Service
 “More than any other single way, the grace of humility is
worked into our lives through the Discipline of service.” –
Richard Foster
 “We are most like Him (Jesus) when we serve as He served.” –
Charles Stanley
 Make a commitment to be a servant, not just to serve