Women's Bible Study - Helping
Others Know Jesus
November 21/13
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me
To preach good news to the poor;
He has sent me
to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim freedom for
the prisoners,
To recover the sight of the blind,
To release the oppressed
and proclaim the year of
the Lord's favor." Luke 4:18-19 (NKJV)
Many of us do not know if we
can be a Servant of Christ. What is it to serve? You know you can be a servant
when you look at how you respond to someone treating you like a servant.
Do you have a servant's
heart? Do you give your time and yourself to helping others when you can,
because you can, or because you feel you have to?
Keep in Mind: Jesus is asking us to do what He, Himself did
when He was on Earth.
POINT TO PONDER:
I serve God by serving
others.
“If you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my
followers, you will surely be rewarded.”
MATTHEW 10:42 (NLT)
A popular phrase today is
'Servant Leader'. Is this because of the human ego? When we declare ourselves a
leader are we not expecting others to serve us?
God doesn't care what label we put on it; he just wants us to serve with
our heart.
The more you serve the more
God pours His blessings into your life.
The first step to bringing
others to Jesus is getting baptized yourself. Not only is it a commandment in
the bible, its also His wish that we declare publicly that as an adult we
choose to follow Jesus and wish all who see us, to know we choose Jesus (and
God).
The second step: God wants us
to have connection with Him on the first day of every week. Sunday. So we can be guided into our next week with a
strong foothold.
Jesus read the prophecy of
himself (the Messiah is coming one day) from the scroll of:
- anointed me to preach good news to the poor
- sent me to heal the broken-hearted
- to proclaim freedom for the prisoner
- to recover the sight of the blind
- to release the oppressed and proclaim the year of
the Lord's favour
The third step: How
can you know if you have the heart of a servant? Jesus said, "You can tell
what they are by what they do."
1. Real
servants make themselves available to
serve.
When God calls upon us for an act of service, do
we grumble? Do we reject it, saying that our schedule is already filled to the
brim? Real servants don't fill up their time with other pursuits that could
limit their availability. Just like a soldier, a servant should be ready for
duty anytime. Are we available to God anytime? Can he mess up our plans without
becoming resentful?
Let's remind ourselves at the start of each day
that we are God's servant, so that interruptions won't frustrate us as much,
because our agenda will be whatever God wants to bring into our life.
2. Real
servants pay attention to needs.
Servants are always on the lookout for ways to
help others. John Wesley, an incredible servant of God, once said, "Do all
the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the places you can, at all
times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can. "That is greatness.
We can begin by looking for small tasks that no
one else wants to do. (yes, even cleaning the church toilet)
3. Real
servants do their best with what they
have.
Servants don't make excuses, procrastinate, or
wait for better circumstances. God expects you to do what you can, with what
you have, wherever you are. Less-than perfect service is always better than the
best intention.
One reason many people never serve is that they
fear they are not good enough to serve. Well, the truth is, almost everything
we do is done poorly when we first start doing it - that's how we learn.
4. Real
servants do every task with equal
dedication.
As servants, whatever we do, do it with all
our hearts.. The size of the task is irrelevant. The only issue is, does it
need to be done?
You will never arrive at the state in life where
you're too important to help with menial tasks. Jesus specialized in menial
tasks that everyone else tried to avoid: washing feet, helping children, fixing
breakfast, and serving lepers. Nothing was beneath him, because he came to serve. It
wasn't in spite of his greatness that he did these
things, but because of it.
And he expects us to follow his examples.
5. Real
servants are faithful to their
ministry.
Servants finish their tasks, fulfill their
responsibilities, keep their promises, and complete their commitments. They
don't leave a job half undone, and they don't quit when they get discouraged.
They are trustworthy and dependable.
Faithfulness has always been a rare quality.
Most people don't know the meaning of commitment. They make commitments
casually, then break them for the slightest reason without any hesitation,
remorse, or regret. Every week, churches and other organizations must improvise
because volunteers didn't prepare, didn't show up, or didn't even call to say
they weren't coming.
Can we be on counted by others? Are there
promises we need to keep, vows we need to fulfill, or commitments we need to honour?
God is testing our faithfulness. Imagine what it will feel like one day to have
God say to you, "Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been
faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more
responsibilities. Let's celebrate together!"
Faithful servants never retire. They serve faithfully
as long as they're alive. You can retire from your career, but you will never
retire from serving God.
6. Real
servants maintain a low profile.
Servants don't promote or call attention to
themselves. Instead of acting to impress and dressing for success, they
"put on the apron of humility, to serve one another." If recognized
for their service, they humbly accept it but don't allow notoriety to distract
them from their work.
Serving in order to impress people with how
spiritual we are, is the sin of the Pharisees. They turned helping others,
giving, and even prayer into a performance for others. Jesus hated this
attitude and warned, "When you do good deeds, don't try to show off. If
you do, you won't get a reward from your Father in heaven."
In our bodies, we have several prominent parts
that we could live without. Most people could go on living without an arm, a
leg, or even an eye, but nobody could live without a brain, or a heart. It is
the hidden parts inside our bodies that are significant.
Knowing this, let's not be discouraged when our
service is unnoticed or taken for granted. Keep on serving God! Even the
smallest service is noticed by God and will be rewarded. Remember the words of
Jesus: "If, as my representatives, you give even a cup of cold water to a
little child, you will be surely be rewarded."
Who Jesus came to help
"THE
POOR"
Types of poverty: The Have Nots of life. There are times in our lives when we don't
have what we need. i.e- time, energy, money, spiritual feeling.... There are
times we are lacking.
·
Material poverty (have
the world is living on $2 a day - North America
is very rich in comparison (Mother Teresa and the banana)
·
Moral poverty - lack of
integrity or knowledge of right and wrong or just want to do what's easiest or
best for you
·
spiritual poverty - don't
know what God has planned for your life. So many don't know how much God loves
them
"THE BROKENHEARTED"
The Let-down:
The term broken-hearted came from the bible - Psalm 69:20
there is the Broken-heart syndrome where a
traumatic event will cause your own body to release a chemical that breaks down
the tissue of your heart
·
disappointment- don't turn out how you planned
·
rejection - when you feel rejected by a loved one or someone you
respect
·
resentment - holding a grudge, eats you alive
"THE IMPRISONED"
Types of prisons:
·
addictions - and
compulsions; substance, event, porn, relationship
·
secrets - you don't feel
you can share or tell someone (James - confess to each other) revealing your
feeling is the beginning of healing
·
ignorance - lack of
education. Half of the world cannot read
or write. Bible talks about Jesus being a teacher and how He teaches us
·
fear - the bigger it gets
the tighter your prison. Fear only gets bigger if you don't share
The Locked Up in their own life someway - sometimes resulting from
being Broken-hearted
"THE BLIND"
Types of blindness: The shut out of life - don't get to
experience what others see and do because of their prison
·
relational blindness - you
don't see how you're messing up the relationship, and you don't see the
self-defeating attitude. what the common denominator in those failed
relationships? you! Men can be clueless
in this way...
·
spiritual - close our
eyes to the goodness of God and attribute that good to ourselves; although
blame God for all the bad things that happen
·
physical blindness -
colour blind, night blind, total blindness
"THE OPPRESSED"
Types: The
kicked around - by circumstances, taken advantage of, bullied, etc
·
political - refugees have been pushed out of
their country. Those enslaved, this is not outlawed outside of North America. (c
·
cultural - depending on where we live. Asia has
girls that go neglected, or infancide (the killing of first born baby girls),
each year 2 million girls between 5 and 15 sold into sexual slavery or honour
killing (husband or father thinks the wife or girl did something wrong against
the family)
·
spiritual
- depressed, stressed, give it all up.
This is a gift from Satan to discourage you
"The year of JUBILEE" - year of the Lord's favour - law in
Leviticus -
·
God said he didn't want
us to be work slaves (every 7 days take a day off for rest and worship-
commandment).
·
Every 7th year let the land rest and take that
year off (sabbatical - to recharge) -
·
every 50th year have a
year of Jubilee; every debt cancelled, everyone in prison for debt or enslaved
for debt is set free, the land returns to original owner.
He did this in honour of the promised land to let everyone realize
that we don't actually own anything, its just on loan for however many years
you are on this earth. Its like God evens the score for everyone. But Israel never observed this so
God. So the served become the servants
and the servants can redeem themselves.
"I have given you an
example to follow. Now do as I have done
to you." John 13:15 (NLT)
_____________________________________________________________
Women's Bible Study - Helping Others Know Jesus
November 21/13- Worksheet
- Which of the six characteristics of a real
servant offers the greatest challenge to me?
____________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
- How do I serve?
__________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
- How can we follow What Jesus came to do? List a
person that shows you the following:
"Preach good news"
"Heal the broken-hearted"
"Proclaim freedom"
"Provide recovery of sight"
"Release the oppressed"
- Start with your own family today. Serve them as
you can, when you can (without the resentment of 'getting taken advantage
of'). Explain to the children why
you are doing the laundry, cooking meals, volunteering outside of the
home. Show them how to be a servant with a glad heart.
- What 3 things will you do this week to kick-start
your serving others?
- Share the good news of Jesus (with someone you
know).
- Share that you are a Christian at work. Work it
into a conversation. Find that
person around you that may be hurting others, they are hurting themselves
and need your Love and serving.
- Remind yourself that Jesus is with you, everyday!
Talk to God frequently every day- He will show you where you can serve or
how to introduce Him to others.
Perfect Love of Christ casts out all fears. (the fear of embarrassment
or rejection is caused by Satan and is worse than actually doing the deed
we fear)
F-alse
E-vedance
A-ppearing
R-eal
THE P.E.A.C.E. PLAN:
JESUS' STRATEGY
Promote reconciliation
Equip servant leaders (pastor, volunteer coordinator)
Assist the poor
Care for the sick
Educate the next generation
God knows when we are weak and wants to
help us to show others His Love!
"… I have become a
servant of everyone so that I can bring them to Christ… When I am with those
who follow Jewish laws, I do the same, even though I am not subject to the law,
so that I can bring them to Christ. When I am with Gentiles… I fit in with them
as much as I can… so I can bring them to Christ. But I do not discard the law
of God; I obey the law of Christ. When I am with those who are oppressed, I
share their oppression so that I might bring them to Christ. I try to find
common ground with everyone so that I might bring them to Christ. I do all this
for the sake of the Good News, and in doing so I enjoy its blessings."
1 Cor. 9:19-23
(NLT)
How are we going to help others know
Jesus?
by growing into and showing a servants
heart
Encouragement
- Memory Verses
Isaiah
60:1-2
This lesson inspired by The Purpose
Driven Life Day 33
