John 12:26

26 Anyone who wants to be my disciple must follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves me.

1. Servants follow the Lord

We are often told that we need to be serving but the truth is we all serve, it’s who we serve that we need to figure out. Are you serving Jesus and how do you know? Serving Jesus starts with following Jesus, not getting ahead of Him but following. If we’re really honest with ourselves what we want is for Jesus to follow us around and bless what it is that we have chosen to do with our time and our resources. But that is not Jesus’ command to us today. Today Jesus gives us the challenge, “26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be.” Do you know who you are following?

A simple definition of “Christian” is to be “A Follower of Christ.” In the gospel of Matthew – Jesus is walking by the sea Galilee and He sees Simon Peter and his brother Andrew and he says to them. “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” The scripture goes on to say that Jesus went along the beach a little further and “He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.” What does following Christ involve? It involves becoming His servant. If you desire to serve Christ, you must first follow Him, because choosing to follow forces us to deal with our greatest opposition to servant hood, our Will. To be a servant of Christ we must first be willing to submit to His will and His direction, personal desires must be surrendered to pursue the desire of the master. Following involves submission that is born out of Trust, Obedience and Risk. We will only let go of control if we really trust that God is in charge. We will only obey Him as we take Him at His Word and walk by faith, which is always required if we are to risk it all for Him.

1. Servants are found where Jesus is working

Service is about working with Jesus, it’s about serving a God you can know. Service means moving beyond self to embrace the Savior, there is no way to become like Jesus without the willingness to serve. Service should always lead to an encounter with Jesus, it’s about a relationship. Religion is a duty, it’s an obligation, a futile attempt to somehow measure up. For so many service is about doing, but for me it’s celebrating what He done and an excited anticipation of what He is going to do. I get to join in and work with Jesus, it’s a team effort -Jesus and me. We are saved to serve, not sit, soak and sour! What are you doing in service to your Lord that will outlive you?

1. Servants will be honored by God

Service may require us to humble ourselves, but it is humility that leads to greatness. There are times when the teachings of Jesus make little sense to our human mind and this is one of those times. Our human nature strives for honor, recognition and achievement. The thinking is that we have to climb the ladder of success to accomplish these things. Jesus says that in order to be great, we must lower ourselves. In order to rise, we must be willing to descend. The only ways that Jesus says that we can actually achieve greatness is to give up the pursuit of self-exaltation. It’s only when we give up the quest for greatness in our own abilities that we find greatness in Christ.

Look at how God has blessed and gifted you and then ask yourself, “If Jesus were given this life of mine, what would He do with it? Where would he go with it?”