Charles R. Swindoll - Improving Your Serve

Improving Your Serve

Improving Your Serve

Charles R. Swindoll

REVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION

1981 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc.

Library of Congress catalog card number: 80-54553

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, by The Lockman Foundation and used by permission.

Scripture quotations identified TLB are from The Living Bible Paraphrased (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, 1971).

Scripture quotations identified NIV are from the Holy Bible: New International Version, 1978 by the New York International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

Scripture quotations identified PHILLIPS are from The New Testament in Modern English, 1958, 1960, 1972 by J.B. Phillips.

Scripture quotations identified NEB are from The New English Bible, 1961, 1970 The Delegates of the Oxford University Press and The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press.

Scripture quotations identified KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

The quotation on page 90 is reprinted with permission of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., from Creative Brooding by Robert Raines. 1966 by Robert Raines.

ISBN 978-0-8499-1769-1 (HC)
ISBN 978-0-8499-4527-4 (SC)

Printed in the United States of America

09 10 11 12 13 QW 17 16 15 14 13

Contents

Encouragement to Servants

Introduction

ISNT IT AMAZING how God can take a simple thought and magnify it in our lives? I have been humbled throughout almost forty years of ministry to see how God has used our efforts to reach millions of men and women around the world for Christ. This book, for example, began as a simple idea back in the late 1970s. It was to be a personal Bible study on the idea of Christian service. But as I fleshed out my thoughts over a period of weeks and months, I found such a wealth of images and supporting examples that I realized the Lord had been leading me all the way.

The initial motivation for the study was a remarkable passage of scripture that caught my eye almost by accident. Who knows why a certain verse will do that? For some reason, a passage will jump out at you and begin to work on your thoughts until it brings you to a new sense of revelation. Thats precisely what happened here, and the things I discovered through this particular passage of scripture began working on me in subtle but profound ways.

For more than two years I kept going back to it, reading it over and over again in the original Greek and in other translations and paraphrases, trying to find the deeper meanings within the idea of servanthood. At times this verse disturbed and convicted me. At other times I was encouraged by it. But when I began using it as a basis for evaluating Christian leadership, I was sometimes shocked. More often than not, the truth of the verse in daily living is conspicuous by its absence. And in the places where we would expect to see it displayed most oftenin the Christian communityall too often real servanthood is demonstrated only rarely, if at all.

So what was the verse that prompted so much thought and analysis? Mark 10:45, which says:

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many (NIV) .

And what does it teach us? Authentic servanthood.

Read the verse again, this time aloud. When Jesus took the time to explain His reason for coming among us, He was simple and direct: to serve and to give. Not to be served. Not to grab the spotlight in the center ring.

Not to make a name or attract attention or become successful or famous or powerful or idolized. No, quite frankly, that stuff turned Him off.

I cant help but think of Isaiahs marvelous prophecy of the coming Messiah. God says: Behold, My Servant... He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice (Isa. 42:13). What a marvelous picture. But how unusual the prophets words must have sounded to the people of that day!

God proclaimed ages before it happened that the Savior would come as a gentle servant, a leader who would transform the world and bring forth justice, but not with loud harangues or offensive threats. He would do it with love. Gentle as a lamb. And because He was to come in peace, as a gentle servant, Jesus Christ would succeed in changing the world forever. And He would bring real and lasting justice!

The first-century world was full and running over with strong-willed dogmatists. Authority figures were a dime a dozen (they always are). There were Caesars and Herods and governors and other pompous hotshots in abundance. Some, like the Pharisees and Sadducees and scribespeople with whom Jesus locked horns from the earliest days of his ministryeven used religion as their lever to control others. But servants? I mean the authentic types who genuinely gave of themselves without concern over who got the glory? They were not to be found!

But before we cluck our tongues and wag our heads at those down the time tunnel, criticizing the Roman world for its conceit and arrogance, the fact is weve got some homework to catch up on. It was the startling realization of this a few years ago that forced me to stop in my tracks and do some serious thinking about servanthood. Its not that Id never heard the word or tossed it around from time to time... but I honestly had not made a conscious effort to examine the concept of serving, either in Scripture or in its everyday outworking.

I certainly had not been much of a model of it, I openly admit to my own embarrassment. Frankly, it is still a struggle. Serving and giving dont come naturally. Living an unselfish life is an art!

The result of my in-depth study of these principles has been more beneficial than words can describe. The finger of Gods Spirit pointed me from one biblical passage to another. He then provided me perception in interpretation beyond my own ability and ultimately assisted me in appropriating and applying the principles that emerged from the pages of His Book. With remarkable regularity the Lord turned on the lights in areas that had been obscure or dark in my thinking throughout my Christian life.

Big boulders that had blocked my vision and progress were shoved aside. Insight began to replace ignorance. Becoming a servant began to be something beautiful, yes, essential, rather than something fearful and weird. I not only desired it for myselfa process that is still going on but I wanted to share with others what God was revealing to me.

I did just that. Sunday after Sunday I preached my heart out among the most teachable and responsive congregation a pastor could possibly enjoy. The study grew out of a series of sermons I preached at First Evangelical Free Church in Fullerton, California, where I served almost twenty-three years as senior pastor. Subsequently it was broadcast to all the friends around the world who listen to our daily Insight for Living radio program. I have also spoken on the subject at Christian colleges, seminaries, banquets and other gatherings in churches, radio rallies, as well as many Christian conferences. Almost without exception those who heard these messages encouraged me to write a book that would convey this material in printed form.