Service: First is Last

This episode delves into the significance of servanthood, emphasizing how true service reflects the heart of God. Through personal stories and biblical teachings, we explore how humility counters pride, leading to greater fulfillment and connection with others. 

•  Exploring the biblical basis of service through Jesus' example 
•  The struggle of overcoming pride to embrace a servant's heart 
•  Personal anecdotes about transformations through service 
•  Practical advice on finding opportunities to serve 
•  Weekly Challenge: God's Love Served
•  Preview of next episode focusing on forgiveness and humility

Chapters

• 1:30 Episode Intro
• 2:20 John 13
• 6:45 Flashback: You Got Served
• 11:12 Lessons in Service
• 12:42 Outro and Prayer

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

Welcome to the Low Life Show, a space where we have conversations about the struggles of life, where we declare war on pride and walk humbly into renewed living with a surrendered heart. Where we take our past failures and turn them into a roadmap for you to live in peace and living the low life. Whether you're working through personal struggles or simply seeking a fresh perspective, this podcast will inspire and equip you to live low and let God lift you up. I'm your host, dl, the Low Life, a reformed professional dirtbag who's here to tell you that I now live a life of peace, transformed through humility. Join me, let's get low.

Speaker 2: 0:54

Thank you.

Speaker 3: 1:30

Welcome back to the Low Life Show. I'm your host, dl, the Low Life, and today we're diving into a tough but beautiful part of living low Servanthood Kind of like Jeffrey from Fresh Prince, but not exactly Now. I know. Serving others doesn't always come naturally. Pride tells us to put ourselves first, to make sure that we're good before we worry about anyone or anything else. But living low does the opposite. A low life says others come first. Jesus said whoever wants to become great among you must take up the position of a servant. So let's talk about what it means to live low by lifting others up, and how serving actually brings you closer to God. Let's get into it. We begin in John 13 for our first example, our main example, the prime example of service and the model that we follow. After you call me teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you should also wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly, I tell you no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Speaker 3: 3:08

We start with the servant leader himself, jesus. In John 13,. Jesus washing his disciples' feet is one of the most humbling moments in the Bible. I mean, he's the son of God, the king of kings, and he gets down on his knees to wash dirt and grime off his friend's feet. I mean, the feet are one of the places on the body that excrete sweat and toxins. They're one of the sweatiest body parts, with a quarter million glands. They'd be stankin' sometimes, and here was Jesus washing them. When he's done, he says I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. This is what living low looks like serving others even when it's uncomfortable. In doing this one act, jesus covered all the bases. He left no room for confusion. He led by example.

Speaker 3: 3:57

So what does the heart of a servant look like? Well, the first and foremost thing is it's not about status. If Jesus can wash feet, you could serve your family, your co-workers, your neighbor, the community, regardless of titles, finances or any other means of division. Jesus made it a point to show that nobody is too good to serve. If you think it's titles game, go ahead and break out your best title and stack it next to the only begotten son of God, or king of kings, or the way, the truth and the life. How about savior? Unless it's greater than the name above all names, you don't have a case.

Speaker 3: 4:35

Even if it were to be equal, that would mean you have a heart to serve and you are more concerned with the needs of others than your own. None of us is more valuable than the other when it comes to the kingdom. In God's eyes, we're equals. The heart of a servant also reflects God's heart. God's love is selfless and when we serve others we reflect that love.

Speaker 3: 4:54

True service is the heart of God. We don't need to look any further than Jesus. Everything he did on this earth prior to his ascension was in service, kingdom service. It was God's will. It wasn't Jesus' own, not his preference, none of that. It was obedience to the will of God, and that will had him serving and teaching and doing things that probably you and I would not be doing, at least not in those ways, at least not with that wholehearted, reckless abandon type of a deal where he didn't care about anything but that, and the that in this situation was us.

Speaker 3: 5:28

We got to remember that, when it comes to a serving heart, there's only one thing that's going to try to get in the way, and that's pride. Pride is going to tell you I'm too good for that, while humility says I'd be no good if I don't do that. Pride says what about me? When humility says what about them? Pride says they're not worth it. Humility says I don't even know if I'm worthy to serve them, but I will. Pride worries about getting designer clothes dirty when humility will give a Gucci shirt off his back. Pride is the only thing that stops service. Pride will find excuses, justifications, any reason to make you feel better about ignoring or neglecting the needs. Remember Jesus said whoever takes up the low position of a child, the least in the world, that is, who would be the greatest in the kingdom.

Speaker 3: 6:46

Now, I don't know about you, but I used to think very differently about serving. I always enjoyed helping myself and my family or someone, anyone who I could benefit from by helping them, but organized serving like a job, for free and on my own time. Yeah, I'm good. No, thank you. Serving sounded like something beneath me, shoot. If I could help it, I wouldn't even serve my own food at the time. It really makes no sense at all, though, because you know I grew up poor and needing help when I was young. I expected the help, but it never came. And still here I was with that same expectation and no desire to do it myself, no ambition to be the change I wanted to see in the world. See, our family was poor but not homeless, broke but not broken. I didn't get new clothes every year, but I had access to keep up hygiene and hand-me-downs. They were fine. The people that required that kind of service either scared me, disgusted me, were just beneath me, or they just flat out didn't matter to me.

Speaker 3: 7:44

Things changed when I got older, though. As an adult, I didn't judge or condemn. In the same way, I mostly just didn't care. I'd give loose change or what I could afford to to panhandlers outside the 7-Eleven, but that was about the extent of it. It wasn't until I had to do my community service as a condition of one of my criminal cases.

Speaker 3: 8:01

That's when things began to change. I mean, I had to go where my freedom was at risk. At first I was bummed, hated, life Sucks. Then, when I got there, somebody told me that the guy who signed off might mark my one day there as the three that I owed. That gave me hope, until I actually met the guy. Before I got a word out, he said Before you even ask, I expect you to do every minute the judge ordered you to serve. I was pissed.

Speaker 3: 8:27

This was a time in my life where I was angry, violent, reckless. I nearly walked off right then and there, but I didn't. I may have risked freedom, but I wasn't going to do something that guaranteed I would lose it. I mean, even on a crime spree, they had to catch me first, so I always had a 50-50 shot. This time, though, it was do not pass, go, go straight to jail.

Speaker 3: 8:47

So I stayed and went to my assigned area, head down, bummed out, just wanting to go, until I got to my spot and heard a familiar voice. It was one of my homeboys, someone I had done reckless things with, done time with, someone I could have fun in this place with. I thought to myself cool, I get to work with one of my people. I was excited and ready to cause hell. I turned around only to find out that he was one of the people I was there to serve. This was a gut check here. I was disgusted with this idea in my head of who and what these people were, and the whole time one of them was my people.

Speaker 3: 9:19

This began a change in my perspective. I would find out that he had been homeless the whole time. I knew him, in fact. He used to enjoy getting locked up because he had stable home there. He had meals, showers all the things that he needed. This stopped me from judging in such a condescending way. Now, I was not so much better than them just a little bit.

Speaker 3: 9:39

It wasn't until I became one of them truly, when I was homeless, broke, broken, hungry, dirty, strung out every bit. The person I used to step over on the sidewalk I had to hustle to get money to survive Needed food for sustenance, but when I'd get the money, I couldn't afford the food. I could get drugs all day. For the low, though, and the best part the drugs kept me moving. They stifled my appetite, and I stayed warm on cold nights. That was when I was convicted about service. I was now the exact person I judged harshly, and nobody wanted to acknowledge my existence. What I found out, though, was that the people I now found myself around were some of the kindest, most caring people I had ever met in my life, and they lived in tunnels Full of hope, despite what I used to think, and perhaps what some of you might think of them today. They are not and were not hopeless. They were just beat down by the world and even still, even after the beating the world gave, they showed love and moved with like an air of grace to them. They, like myself, had their pick of dumpsters, tunnels, abandoned places or just flat out in the dirt in the open as a place of residence. I realized during that time in my life that we are all people, no matter class or status, no matter height or weight, color or anything else. I adopted a phrase that day that I still agree with, but now I'm praying for it to change. It goes like this people suck. Here's the beauty of that experience and what I've learned from then until now. Serving doesn't have to be complicated. Start small, help a neighbor, volunteer or just listen to someone who needs encouragement. The key is that they come before you, you actually care about their needs. Don't pressure yourself, thinking it has to look like your outreach leader. Trust me, if I tried to keep up with my outreach pastor, I would never serve. The guy is just anointed for that.

Speaker 3: 11:42

And now we pause for the cause, for your weekly challenge Find one way to serve someone this week. It doesn't have to be huge, just something that shows God's love. Then ask God to help you to be humble while you serve, that you wouldn't expect anything in return. Remember kindness, compassion, those things they don't expect. Reciprocation Niceties do. People are only nice when they want or need something or expect something. This is a selfless service.

Speaker 3: 12:12

We can get into the difference in the words in a later episode, because the world just doesn't use words right, which is dangerous, because that may very well be the difference between heaven and hell for some of us. One word wrongly used or defined can lead to a lifetime of thinking we're doing the right thing, only to find out we're not. Anyhow, do something this week, something kind, something that reflects God's love, a love that the world desperately needs to see, and that is your challenge. Serving is one of the best ways to live low and keep pride in check as well, unless you do it for ego. Always check yourself in doing anything. Be sure always that God is in view and he doesn't look like you.

Speaker 3: 12:50

Next episode, we're going to be talking about forgiveness, how humility helps us let go of the things that hold us back. Pride breeds unforgiving hearts, and we are not going to let unforgiveness be the reason. Pride wins. Let's pray, father. We thank you for sending your Son to save us. Jesus, we thank you for the model that you provided by living a life of service, by getting low and washing feet. Your compassion is our rule book. We ask that you would teach us to look at others in the same light, the light of your love, that we would extend the same grace, not qualifying them first, and that we would honor you in every step of service, bless the listener and help them grow one step closer to you this week. That you would be glorified in all things In Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for tuning in. I'm humbled and honored by your support. Until the next time, stay low, stay blessed and stay ready for the next episode of the Low Life Show. Peace, outro Music.