Heart Check

Key verse

The greatest among you must be a servant.

Matthew 23:11 NLT

While reading Matthew 23, we see that Jesus is very direct, and attacks the religious leaders for being hypocrites. One scripture stands out to me more than the others:

The greatest among you must be a servant.

Matthew 23:11 NLT

Jesus is clearly telling us that to be great we must serve. But what does it mean to serve? In short, being a servant means being willing to lay down your life for someone else. Following Christ means that we lay down our own lives to serve Him, just like Jesus laid down His life to serve us. Unlike the hypocritical Pharisees Jesus criticizes in this chapter, Christ leads by example; He not only tells us what to do, but shows us how. From performing miracles and feeding the hungry to washing feet, Jesus was the ultimate servant. In fact, His last act on Earth was willfully laying down His life on the cross so that we could know the Father through Him.

Jesus uses the Scripture to teach us about serving, and in it, we learn that He is more concerned with the state of our heart than He is with our actions. Jesus doesn’t want us to serve to show off; He wants us to sere so we can show the love of Christ to others.

When we serve, we need to do so from a place of pure motive. We don’t serve to get accolades or attention; we serve to show God’s love to others. True service will often be unseen and unrecognized, because serving is a special and unique form of love. Instead of loving God directly like you would through singing a song in worship, serving is showcasing God’s love to someone else. When Jesus returned to heaven, we became His hands and feet on Earth, which means we get to show others how much they are loved, and the goodness of God’s kingdom.

Serving is not just to show how much we love one another, it’s also to show how much He loves others.

If you would like to show others the love of Jesus, there are plenty of places for you to get plugged in at East Coast. Are you a teen? Join the TNT Internship program. Do you have a musical talent? Audition for the Worship Team. Do you love kids? Join the East Coast Kids Team. There is a place for everyone, so stop by the Next Steps table next Sunday and find the right team to be a part of.

Prayer

Thank You, Jesus, for being the ultimate servant. You led by example so that we could follow in Your ways. Thank You for giving us the opportunity to be an extension of You by loving others just like You love us. Please stir in our hearts a desire to serve and a renewed spirit to continue serving. Thank You, Jesus, for keeping our hearts in check so that we are serving for You and not for our own ambitions. Amen.