SERVANT LEADERSHIP - The Blue Letter Bible Institute

Servant Leadership – Lesson 31 13
Keep a Pure Heart by Chuck Smith
kinds of jobs in order to provide for the family’s needs, so that I might stay in the ministry. I used
to get calls all hours of the night. And they would say, “Chuck, we have a body to go pick up.” I
used to get five dollars a body working for the mortuary. That was great because that meant that
we could maybe have meat the next day. I would get up, get dressed, go out and pick up the
bodies, and just really rejoice that God was providing for the needs of the family. They are going
to die anyway so you might as well rejoice. Someone has to pick them up.
And so Paul the Apostle, speaking of the ministry says, “Not counting our own lives dear.” In
other words, we are not looking for the soft life, not looking for the easy way, and not looking for
the comforts. We do not count our own lives dear. Do not have an attitude like, “Well, I am too
good to do that. Well, I am too good to live there. Well, I am too good to drive that kind of a car.”
When I am serving the Lord, what difference does it make what kind of a car I drive, or where I
live if I am serving the Lord? I do not count my own life dear. I am nothing special. The Lord is
the one that is special.
Paul said, “That I might finish the course with joy” (Acts 20:24). Paul looked at life as a race
course that was set before him. He wanted to finish that race, but he wanted to finish it up in
front. He said,
Know ye not that they which run a race, everyone runs, but only
one receives the prize. So run that you might obtain. (cf. 1
Corinthians 9:24)
He later wrote to Timothy and said,
I have fought a good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept
the faith.
Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, our righteous judge shall give. (cf. 2 Timothy
4:7–8)
My desire is that I might finish the course with joy, knowing that I have done the work that God
has called me to do, and knowing that I have been faithful unto the Lord. Now there remains for
me that glorious reward, as I go to receive the reward from the Lord for the things that I have
done while in this body. I will receive from Him that glorious approval as He says, “Well done,
thou good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21) Oh, the joy that awaits me when I have finished
the course! And that is the way I want to run the race so that when I have finished the course, I
can stand before the Lord and say, “Lord, I did my best.”
We are to finish the course with joy. And then Paul said, “That I might finish the ministry that I
have received from Jesus” (Acts 20:24).
The Lord has called each of us to a ministry. It should be the purpose of our lives to finish or to
complete that ministry to which God has called us. And as I said, your ministry may be at a lathe,
it may be at a desk, it may be behind the counter, or it may be at the kitchen sink; but God has a
ministry for each of us. And your life is His; you are His servant. You are serving the Lord and
you belong to Him. And the Lord is going to reward you for your service. And if God has called
you as a mother and a housewife, then rejoice in it! Do your best to show by example to your
children that love of Jesus Christ, that kindness. Show them the mercy and grace of God, so that
you might live before them in such a way that, as they grow up, they will want to follow your
faith and your walk with God.