Servant Leadership

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Servant leadership. The phrase is so often used that it has perhaps suffered from overuse as a term. There is nothing wrong with the phrase but it perhaps needs a bit of clarification.

Questions:

  • How many of us know people in positions of leadership but who fail at serving people?
  • How many of us know people who covet the title of “leader” but fall short of leading selflessly?

Connection: At the church I’m privileged to pastor, we are currently going verse be verse through 1 Peter. The apostle of hope ends the second chapter of that epistle by going in-depth on what it means to serve people well. In verses 18-19, for example, he writes, “Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly” (1 Peter 2:18-19).

A key phrase in that passage is “mindful of God.” What Peter means there is this: biblical leaders are to lead well because they live out a life that demonstrates reverence for God. God is the leader’s commander, if you will. And the leader is mindful of that. That cognizance shapes the trajectory of his leading the people God has sent him to shepherd. That awareness of God’s evaluation of his leadership leads him into humble servant leadership of people God has ransomed by his own blood.

Encouragement: Like all things in Scripture, Christ is the supreme model. He is to be the biblical leader’s perfect paradigm. He’s the model. Do we men fall short of that standard? Of course. But that is not reason to not aim for that standard. Servant leadership is a fine phrase; it’s living that out before God and his people that tests one’s mettle.

Lady Wisdom

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The book of Proverbs is filled with a cast of characters. Two of them, however, stand out—Wisdom and Folly. Both are personified as women. The goal of Proverbs is instruction in wisdom. We are to seek wisdom and flee folly.


Listen to Proverbs:


“I [wisdom] love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me” (Pr 8:17).


“For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death” (Pr 8:35-36).

In verse 17 of Proverbs 8, there is a call to seek wisdom. We are called by Lady Wisdom to seek her diligently. That is, we are to work hard, assiduously, in our pursuit of wisdom. Why? Because with wisdom come life and the favor of God.


This is what Jesus meant when he said the following in John 8:


So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:31-32)


I appreciate the candor of Proverbs 8:35-36 especially, because those two lines clarify the binary that people are either in pursuit of wisdom or folly. We pursue one of the two women, if you will—Lady Wisdom or Lady Folly.


Those who pursue Lady Wisdom find life. Those who pursue Lady Folly injure themselves; they, in fact, “love death.”


Encouragement: How might things be different if we had a culture of Christians known for their pursuit of Lady Wisdom, who lived lives under the favor of the Lord, who demonstrated life in a culture consumed with darkness and death? I cannot speak for others, but as for me and my household, we aim to pursue Lady Wisdom and obtain the favor of the Lord. Because that way is the way of wisdom.

Early Morning Thoughts in My Study Before Preaching

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In my library this morning, it is quiet. My dog is asleep on her chair in front of a wall of books. My desk is covered with Bibles and stacks of biblical resources. My preaching Bible is open to 1 Peter 2:12-17, and I am focused on accurately dividing God’s words to his people.

The bottom line up front (BLUF) from this text? Our conduct demonstrates our Commander. To quote a dear Christian saint who has now gone on to her reward, “What’s down in the well comes up in the bucket.” We invariably make our theology visible. How we live demonstrates what we believe; all else is mere talk.

The time before and with the Christian saints this morning will be precious. But so much depends upon the disposition of the heart. It is now . . . in this quiet, in this stillness, in this time of solitude, when God reveals my own unworthiness but his own glory and sufficiency. I learn again and again that it is Christ we are to proclaim. It is Christ’s church; it is Christ’s bride; it is Christ who “commands my destiny,” as the hymn phrases it in the song “In Christ Alone.”

Our conduct demonstrates who commands us. Therefore, as Peter says, we are to keep our conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against us as evildoers, they may see our good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation (1 Pt 2:12).

Our conduct reveals who commands us. Lord, make me faithful.

Come and see what the Lord is doing @ 3cs-canton.org

But the LORD Saw . . .

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Text: “And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD” (2 Samuel 11:27).

Context, Context, Context: David coveted another man’s (Uriah’s) wife, Bathsheba. He slept with her. She conceived. She bore David’s child. The child died. David’s sins continued. He set up one of his own military men to be struck down in battle, in an effort to cover his (David’s) tracks. But God saw it all. And David’s sin “displeased the LORD.”

That’s the nature of lies. The liar finds himself in need of creating even more lies and stagecraft in efforts of hiding his sin. But God sees. God sees it all. And God is not mocked. Why? Because there’s no escaping God.

Encouragement: Like we fellow sinners, David was a fallen man; he was a sinner. We need a perfect king, a righteous king. And that’s what God is showing in Scripture, namely, that all humans fall short (Romans 3:23). Hence the need for Christ, the spotless lamb of God who was made sin for us so that we sinners who repent and believe would be forgiven (2 Corinthians 5:21).

David did eventually repent, but he remained a man of war, and his family life and the kingdom’s life all suffered because of sin. Sin doesn’t just affect the individual sinner; it affects the organizations of which we are a part–be that families, churches, companies, or armies. Keep short accounts with God, dear ones. Why? Because God sees. He sees it all.

David’s Kindness

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Text:

And David said, “Is thee still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” (2 Samuel 9:1).

Context, Context, Context: David was now king. He was the one God chose. He had a heart for God. Saul had been a disaster. Saul had served as a judgment against the nation for their idolatry. The ark of the covenant had been brought back in the midst of the people. And David’s star was again on the rise. But David, unlike Saul, was not in love with himself; David loved the Lord. And David longed to show kindness.

Illustration: One of the framed quotes I have on one of my office walls is below. It’s a quote from Dickens, one of my favorite writers of whose writing I never tire. It reads, “Do all the good you can & make as little fuss about it as possible.”

That’s one of the characteristics that sets David apart as a man after God’s own heart.

Encouragement: Look at how this is an abbreviation of the gospel, dear ones. The king, the one persecuted, though he was a good man (at least in comparison to wicked Saul), showed kindness to the family of his (David’s and God’s) former enemies. Don’t miss that–the kindness of God’s king towards enemies. Sound like the gospel? It should . . . because it is.

On the Turning Away

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Text:

14 Do not enter the path of the wicked,
    and do not walk in the way of the evil.
15 Avoid it; do not go on it;
    turn away from it and pass on.
16 For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong;
    they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.
17 For they eat the bread of wickedness
    and drink the wine of violence.
18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
    which shines brighter and brighter until full day. (Pr 4:14-18)

Teaching: Solomon instructs his son in wisdom. The father teaches the son the ungliness of folly and the beauty of wisdom. Solomon provides the imagery of two different paths. One path is trod by the wicked. The wicked “walk in the way of evil” (v. 14b). And Solomon instructs his son plainly: “Avoid it [the path of the wicked]; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on” (v. 15). Walk the beautiful path, the path of wisdom.

Then Solomon describes the moral character of those who trod the path of evil. He tells his son that those who trod that path “cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble” (v. 16). There are some folks whose lives are restless; therefore, they meddle in other people’s lives. They stir the pot, we might say. They are nosy people. They insert themselves into our lives without invitation. They “eat the bread of wickedness,” (v. 17), Solomon writes.

That’s a pretty unsavory individual, the one who refuses to stay in his lane. He just cannot be content; therefore, he meddles. He intrudes. He is nosy. And he’s an irritant.

Encouragement: We’re to turn away from such people and walk the path of the righteous. Why? Because that path “shines brighter and brighter until full day” (v. 18b). We’re to keep our hearts “with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (v. 23).

Take a Knee

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Introduction: “Take a knee.” It’s a welcome phrase we hear sometimes as soldiers, especially when we’re physically exhausted, spent, and our gas tank is running on empty. (Yes, I’m hearing Jackson Browne’s song in my head, too, now.) Here’s the way Browne wrote about this feeling:

runnin’ on empty
(Runnin’ on) runnin’ blind
(Runnin’ on) runnin’ into the sun
But I’m runnin’ behind

Regardless of our stations in life, I would think all of us have experienced seasons when we knew that we were running on empty and that we needed to take a knee.

Connection to Scripture: In 1 Samuel 30, it’s a low time in the life of David. His wives had been captured by the wicked pagans, the Amalekites. Much of the territory had been reduced to scorched earth. The invaders had taken captives. And the word on the street got back to David that he was a wanted man (1 Samuel 30:5). David was running on empty. David very much needed to take a knee.

Text and Teaching: But listen to what Scripture records about this incident and learn what it has to teach all of us who have found ourselves running on empty and in need of taking a knee: “And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God” (1 Samuel 30:6).

Encouragement: First, David was self-aware. Second, because David was self-aware, he turned to God. David knew the situation was too much for human effort to conquer. He knew where he needed to look for strength, and he did it. He strengthened himself “in the LORD his God.” There’s much wisdom here, dear ones. Some battles are too big for us. If we think they’re not, that may be a sign of our hubris. Let us be self-aware and turn to the One whose strength is all-powerful and holy and not delude ourselves into webs of entrapment woven by human vanity.

Literary Encouragement from Tennyson

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I was grading some of my students’ work recently. I had a young man allude to some of the many famous lines from literature. My student wrongly attributed them to Dickens. Dickens is certainly a master, but in the prose form, not in the poetic one.

I gently corrected the student and redirected him to the actual author, Tennyson.

And from Tennyson’s “In Memoriam,” a poem about his dear but departed friend, here’s the last section of one of Tennyson’s masterpieces:

XXVII from “In Memoriam”:

I envy not in any moods

   The captive void of noble rage,

   The linnet born within the cage,

That never knew the summer woods:

I envy not the beast that takes

   His license in the field of time,

   Unfetter’d by the sense of crime,

To whom a conscience never wakes;

Nor, what may count itself as blest,

   The heart that never plighted troth

   But stagnates in the weeds of sloth;

Nor any want-begotten rest.

I hold it true, whate’er befall;

   I feel it, when I sorrow most;

   ‘Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all.

The Import/Significance of ‘If’

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It’s a small word but it is weighty, significant, and important: If.

Grammatically, it is a subordinating conjunction. Often it is used to introduce conditional clauses and statements. “If you do your chores, then you will receive your allowance,” for example. If signifies a hinge, so to speak. The condition pivots or hinges upon a duty or obligation being met.

Segue: Proverbs 2 serves as an example of what I mean regarding this crucial word if. Focus with me for a moment upon Solomon’s words below:

1 My son, if you receive my words
    and treasure up my commandments with you,
2 making your ear attentive to wisdom
    and inclining your heart to understanding;
3 yes, if you call out for insight
    and raise your voice for understanding,
4 if you seek it like silver
    and search for it as for hidden treasures,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord
    and find the knowledge of God. (Proverbs 2:1-5)

Question: Do you see how important and weighty the if is in three of those lines from Solomon’s pen?

Teaching: Look at the benefits that result from obeying the if conditions:

  • Understanding (v. 5)
  • Knowledge (v. 5)
  • Protection/a “shield” (v. 7)
  • Discretion and deliverance from evil (vv. 11-12)

Encouragement: If we hear and learn and obey God’s words to us from Solomon here, then we receive blessing from the kindness of God. But it all hinges upon satisfying the import, significance, and weight of meeting the conditions carried by this little (but not little) if.