A Compelling Testimony: Maintaining a Disciplined Walk, Christlike Character, and Godly Relationships as God's Servant

Ses s i on 5: Cu l t i vat i ng Our Charac ter : The Outward Di sc i p l i nes 213

(a) 1 John 2.15 – Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (b) Gal. 1.10 – For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. (c) 1 John 4.5 – They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. (d) James 4.4 – You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. b. The discipline of servanthood is directly connected to the calling and ministry of our Lord who came to live as a servant of the lost. (1) Luke 22.27 – For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves. (2) Matt. 20.28 – . . . even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. c. Servanthood concentrates on the needs and cares of others, and not merely self-interest and self preservation, Phil. 2.4-8 – Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. [5] Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, [6] who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the