I have been reading through Luke's gospel in the past couple of months, and over the last week I have started to see a recurring theme in Luke 16-17: servanthood. Listen to Jesus' words:
"No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” -Luke 16:13
“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” -Luke 17:7-10
I shared these verses with our worship team last night at rehearsal, and used the study notes in my ESV Bible to explain the point Jesus was making in this parable: that we are unworthy servants. That God owes us nothing, and we owe Him everything, even our very lives. And that in order to ensure we are serving God first and foremost before money or anything else, we are called to use our God-given gifts, abilities, time, energy, services, and resources to serve others and to further the work of the kingdom.
And that is exactly what we are doing by serving on the worship team. We have the privilege of leading our church body in corporate worship, and we are leveraging the musical gifts God has given us to bring Him glory. These verses are a great reminder that as worship leaders, we are first and foremost servants of God. Let's ask God today to give us an attitude of servanthood in all that we do, especially as we stand before our church Sunday after Sunday and lead people in praise to our Savior.
Remember the song "Make Me a Servant"? Let's make this our prayer today:
"Make me a servant humble and meek
Lord let me lift up those who are weak
And may the prayer of my heart always be
Make me a servant make me a servant
Make me a servant today"
-Kelly Willard, 1982
