A Bossy Attitude

WORD FOR THE WEEK 2 March 2008
Christian Fellowship Church, Bangalore, India.
http://www.cfcindia.com
------------------------------------------------------------

A Bossy Attitude

Zac Poonen

Our Lord was a servant, but alas, Christian leaders and
missionaries today are often masters-bosses and Sahibs.
We may not be able to prevent others from calling us "Sahibs"
perhaps, but the question is whether we desire to be Sahibs
in our hearts.

We need to re-learn the lesson that Jesus sought so
patiently to teach His disciples. To them He said, after
washing their feet, "In this world the kings and great men
order their slaves around...but among you the one who serves
you best will be your leader. Out in the world the master
sits at the table and is served by his servants. But not
here! For I am your servant" (Lk. 22:25-27-Living N.T.).
Oh, how these words should convict us of our bossy attitude to
those under us. How we should be humbled by the example of
our Lord. May the Lord remove from us all false, worldly
ideas of self-respect and dignity and race-superiority that
we may yet be having. May He teach us afresh that the real
mark of greatness in the kingdom of God is to be a servant,
a pourer of water, as Jesus was.

May God help us to take the low place not only now but right
through till the end of our lives. Let us never seek for
honour and respect and obedience from our fellow-brethren at
any time, not even when we feel we are senior workers in the
Lord's vineyard. In our attitude to others, may we always
recognise that they are the masters and we are the servants-
even if our official position in the administrative set-up
of our church is higher than theirs and even if we are
senior in age and in experience. The higher we go, the more
it becomes our responsibility to serve others.

2 Corinthians 4:5 is a very challenging verse in this
connection. Paul says there (paraphrasing his words).
"We preach two things: By our lips we proclaim Christ Jesus as
Lord. By our life we proclaim ourselves as your servants for
Jesus' sake."

Brothers and sisters, this is our twofold message;
and what God has joined together, let no man put asunder.
This is the full gospel. May we never be guilty of proclaiming
only half of it, for only when this message is proclaimed in
its entirety will the heathen begin to see Christ sanctified in us.
It is the lack of this that hinders so much of the Lord's
work in our land today.

If we are to be servants, we have to be genuinely humble.
We shouldn't mistake condescension for humility. It is easy to
have condescension. Even selfish politicians have that.
We can have a conceited opinion of ourselves in our hearts that
we are big people and then condescend to fellowship with
lesser folk and mistake that for humility. No, that's not
humility at all.

Genuine humility involves my recognising that in God's eyes
there is no difference whatever between me and anyone else.
All the natural distinctions that exist between me and others
are caused by circumstances and environmental factors etc.,
and have all been eradicated at the cross. The cross of
Jesus reduces us all to zero. If that has not happened in my life,
it only indicates that I have not yet begun to esteem others
as more important than myself, as Philippians 2:3 commands us to.
Once we have been reduced to zero, it becomes easy to
take the low place, willingly and joyfully. And it becomes easy
then for God to accomplish His full purpose through us as well.

As long as Moses (at the age of 40) felt that he was to be
the leader of God's people, God couldn't use him
(Acts 7:25). God had to take him out into the wilderness for
another 40 years and break him. Finally, Moses came to the
place where he said, "Lord, I'm not the man for this job.
I'm unfit. I can't even speak" (and he really meant it;
it wasn't just false humility as it often is with some folk who
say similar things!). It was only then that God could use him,
for Moses had now come to an end of himself. At the age
of 40, in his own strength, all Moses could do was bury one
Egyptian under the sand. After God had broken him, he buried
the whole Egyptian army under the Red Sea. Such is the
result of brokenness.

It is not enough that the Lord take the five loaves and
bless them. They must be broken before the multitude can be fed.
This is a process that has to be repeated in our lives
constantly. God takes us, blesses us, breaks us and uses us.
Then we tend to get exalted because we have been used to
feed so many. So He has to take us and break us again. And
this process goes on all through life.

How we need to covet this brokenness. When a small atom is
broken, what power is released! Then what power could be
released if only the leaders in our churches and then the
congregations were broken by God.
------------------------------------------------------------
For more information write to: cfc@cfcindia.com
------------------------------------------------------------
To read or download previous issues of "WORD FOR THE WEEK" please go to :
http://www.cfcindia.com/web/mainpages/word_for_the_week.php