A Servant's Heart

So, what is the first attribute of a servants heart that we learn from the life of Joseph? Look In verse 19… So her husband Joseph being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly. Do you want to know what that is?… A servants heart must be righteously compassionate? What is righteousness… well, simply put, righteousness is the perfect holiness of Christ. It means, “one who is right.

“ We receive our righteousness through Christ’s work on the cross. Isaiah says: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Proverbs says: “The LORD detests the way of the wicked, but he loves those who pursue righteousness.” Paul’s says “There is none righteous, no not one”? So, if sin is considered filthy rugs, and no one is righteous, then who can really pursue it?

How can we be redeemed and righteous? That’s a really good question… and the answer is no one can on this own. “Jesus said, Apart from me you can do nothing” Our whole faith is depended upon whether or not we are in Christ. Christ is our standard. So righteousness sets the standard of our service because by faith Jesus becomes our everything. He becomes our strength, he becomes our life, he becomes our savior, he becomes the model of righteousness, and he becomes our righteaouness.

Really, that’s what holiness is… we take on the righteousness of Christ when Christ takes on our sin as his. Joseph was righteous…. By being a righteous Jew, he was careful to keep the Law of Moses, which allowed separation for infidelity (Deuteronomy 24:1). But what we realize is that you can not have righteousness without compassion, and vice versa. Peter gives one of my favorite verses that calls us into compassion in the context of biblical marriage.

I Peter 3:8 Peter writes: “Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.” Compassion calls for us to be sympathetic towards one another. To be sympathetic, it simply means to put yourself in their shoes. How would your outlook be different if you spent time putting yourself in someone else shoes? There’s an old saying I’m sure we’ve all heard it… “do not judge a person until you have walked a mile in their shoes”.

It means, to see something from someone else’s perspective… and that’s tough, is it not?. Because for many of the people we see come into contact with, Most times, we will never fully know or understand what they have gone through in their life. A great thinker of his time named Obi Wan Kenobi once said, “Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view”.

One of the hardest things in our Christian walk is setting aside our ego, and our perspective to consider a different opinion from someone else. Just because someone has a different opinion than we do, it doesn’t make them wrong. Most truth is subjective anyway… right? Most truth is filtered through our experiences. But if we’re ever going to understand others and consider different opinions from others, it’s requires us to sympathize with them.

But, there is a danger here by putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes and trying to see from their perspective.…. We, have a tendency to always view ourselves as the hero to every story and we also have a tendency, that when we put ourselves in other peoples shoes, we rarely ever see ourselves as wrong, or even as the villain. Typically we put ourselves in their shoes and we go…

why don’t you just get up and go. Or, This is what I would do in your situation. We say those things and we don’t even know what resources they have available to them.. We just assume they have, all they need, just like us to get through. It might be surprising, but we have been geared our entire life as always looking at ourselves as the pinnacle of our life.

And so, sanctification and holiness is always a direct attack on our hearts because it requires a kingship change of our hearts. Holiness requires surrender. And seeing others in the eyes of Jesus requires his Rightirouness. The bibles says: Phillipians (2:4) Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Romans (12:10) Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

(1 C. 10:24) tells us: Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. And so where does this loving others and being sympathetic towards others come from? It comes from our pursuit of putting Jesus at the center of our lives, and living and pursuing HIs righteousness, while we pursue a deep loving relationship with God. That’s holiness. Jesus, I want to be one with you as your are with the Father!

Isn’t that what our Scripture says about being like minded? To love one another? Jesus tells us says: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:33 Who’s the king of the kingdom of God… it’s Jesus. And we follow his example of living a compassionate life, giving up ourselves, for the service and the uplifting of others. But that’s hard isn’t it…

Think about it…. Would you sacrifice your life to serve the town drunk? Would you sacrifice your life to serve unconditionally that one kid without a father, or a mother? Would you sacrifice your life to serve that person who’s dealing with shame and unforgivness? Let’s ask this.. could you love someone who is hard to love? Would you love someone that is your enemy? Would you love someone that you can’t stand to be around…

Well the answer should be yes… But how… how do we love the unloveable, or in Marys case, how do we love someone who has sinned against God, and us? Humility. Remember, Peter said: “Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate” And then he follows by showing the husband and wife, the church and all of us to drive all of those attributes of Christ forward in humility.

Why? Why does humility lead from behind, love, sympathy, like mindedness and compassion? It leads from behind because real servitude is not that we serve, or how we serve, but where we direct the praise while and as we serve others. Because if you’re like me… I’m human, I’ve been human my whole live and I’ve sinned, and acted unsanctified for most of my life before Christ raised me from death to life, and then he sanctified my heart.

My first initial, carnal reaction to me serving someone else with compassion was always, what do I get in return. Right? I mean, didn’t we learn that at the core of sin is us stealing the praise from God, and placing that praise upon what we Idolize most… and that’s us. Sin redirects praise to ourselves while righteousness points the praise back to God. That’s why it’s so important that in the love we have for Jesus, we take sin serious because we’re robbing Him of the praise He deserves when we choose to live in sin rather than have him as our life.

I think of James chapter 4 often when I serve… James says.. but he gives more grace… I dunno about you, but I need grace for every moment in my life. This will cause your brain to fart… did you know God is giving you the same grace that he’s giving that person living in sin and choosing to walk away? It’s not different grace, it just means more to you and me because our eyes have been opened to see the beauty of Christ…

But When we serve a person, and they reject us… God gives us both, me and the one who rejected me more grace. When we step out and send a text to someone and they don’t text back, or they left the conversation.… God gives us both, me and the one who rejected me more grace. When we step out to do something nice for someone and they say all kinds of hurtful things about us to others behind our backs…

God gives us both, me and the one who rejected me more grace. Why grace? Because 2 Peter 1 says, “Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness” (vs. 2-3). You see the grace of God is more than salvation but also everything we need for life and godliness.

The definition of grace could be “God's life, power and righteousness given to us by unmerited favor.” James in chapter 4 goes on to say. But he gives more grace. “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” He also says in the same chapter, 10 “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” And so what we learn that when it comes to serving others with humility.

Humility takes grace, which is sufficient, looks to Christ who is the the ultimate reward in our service, and goes, Jesus you are good and my reward and portion. Joesph was righteous and Compassionate towards Mary. And what we realize is that by us putting ourselves in other peoples shoes, and through humility, treating them as we would treat ourselves, expecting nothing in return. We learn that Real God given compassion, is God’s righteous compassion exploding out of us as we love God, Love others and as we serve both.

We learn that we can care about what is right and wrong and also care about people as well. One more thing we learn about a servants heart… Look with me back in Matthew chapter 1 at the life of Joseph, beginning in verse 20… 20 But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

At this moment, Joseph had already made up his mind on what he was going to do… He just said in verse 19, He decided to divorce her secretly. His mind was made up. But watch what happens after his encounter with God’s messenger. Look down in verse 24 with me….. 24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her 25 but did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son.

And he named him Jesus. When we read this… Many of us would think changing our mind as someone who is wishy washy. Right? But what we see is that Jospeh isn’t being wishy washy, but he’s actually showing us that he had a soft heart. A soft heart is a heart that is willing to change and stay in the conversation, not obeying what God has said, but what God is saying.

Now let me explain that because I can just imagine a lot of you hearing this, and going… did our pastor just say not to obey what God has said…. Let me explain. Joseph went to bed with his mind made up that he was divorcing Mary, but then, after the angel brought God’s message, Joseph wakes up with the plan to take on the potential shame of Marys pregnancy. And so, let’s asked the question…

What caused him to do that? What caused him to change his mind?… I believe it was his faith. Righteousness and compassion is our faith on display. And when anything is out in the open and on display, it gets tested doesn’t it. Because Real faith must be tested. Faith isn’t faith unless it’s proven. We can sit here in church all day saying we have real faith, but at some point we need to ask, has our faith been proven and tested?

Has it endured? Think of the life of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22. Verse 1 says, after saying all these things God tested Abraham and said to him.. Abraham! Take your son Issac, whom you love (So God said, Abraham, I know you love your son… do you love me?) and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.

So, Abraham got up the next morning and went…. That’s Abraham hearing what God had said, and by faith he was committed. Committed faith is obeying faith… but it’s also trusting faith as well. Abraham trusted in God. Now here’s where I want to dial into what God is showing us today about having a soft heart that serves. A soft heart is a heart that obeys by faith, but it’s also a heart that stays in the conversation with God because it trust.

Jospeh went to bed knowing the law, he was righteous, he loved God and he knew GOd loved Mary… I believe Joesph loved Mary too… God loves people, and Jospeh had to love those GOd loved… and so Jospeh decided to divorce her.. but then his righteousness is tested, his faith is tested, and his faith is also rewarded. Do you know how Abraham answered the Lord when he was about to sacrifice Issac?

He says, Here I am. Right before he takes the life of his only son, he hears the angel of the Lord, some believe this was Jesus, I believe the same… and he says… yes! Here I am….. all of me… right now… I am here, and I hear you. Faith is always rewarded and do you want to know what Abraham’s reward was…. Some might think it was his son…

but it wasn’t… what’s better at that moment than having your son alive… If I was a betting man, I would bet Abraham would say his greatest reward that day was hearing the voice of God again… Oh that’s so good…. The reward was the relationship Abraham still had with God!!… Thank goodness he listens for what God was saying and not just following what God had said. Thank goodness he stayed in the conversation and heard what God was now saying to him later.

This is why presence is so important in our walk with God… that we stay in His presence while living in the present. Think about this as I close… Abraham’s reward to his faith was this deep relationship with the Father… Jospehs reward to his faith was the reward of relationship with God’s only son… He got to be Jesus’s earthly step daddy…. Oh that’s good stuff right there… I’m gonna close now..

I promise… but I wanna close with with these 7 words…. Do you have a servants heart today? A Heart that pursues righteousness. A heart of compassion, showing unity and humility as you serve A heart that’s soft and pliable and workable? Willing to listen to what GOd is saying… rather than just what he had said. Or maybe I should ask a greater question with 7 more words…… Does Jesus have your hearts attention today…..

Are you listening and trusting and obeying? *