Walk With me on Our Journey: A Time to Remember that We Are Called to be Servant Leaders!

Good Evening Beloved Community!

Happy Friday! I hope all is well. I have been thinking a lot lately about servant leadership. Yes, servant leadership! Sometimes in order to be a leader we need to scrap our whole paradigm where and how leadership is practiced. This means getting rid of the top down approach to a place of sharing and humble leadership. When we meditate upon today's lessons we will learn that walking the walk, and talking the talk requires us to recalculate and re-orient ourselves as leaders. This leadership takes us out of the ivory towers to the neighborhood soup kitchen, sets our feet upon pathways that we would normally not see just by disabling our car use, and becoming one who serves with compassionate, accepting, loving and merciful hearts. God equips our calling by changing up our lives in ways unimaginable. So dear ones let us remind ourselves what a servant leader looks like.
Being one means following the leader who isn't afraid to get dirty and serve all! No 3 piece suit needed!
Just grubbies, a warm and loving heart with courage to see God in every person. This also means using
our words and actions accordingly and in accordance with the Great Commandment!

This weekend and this evening we speak the names of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Tony McDade in our corporate and personal prayers. We will begin a period of prayer vigiling beginning tomorrow evening as we move into Monday's National Day of Grief and Lament. Beginning tomorrow our lessons will consist of Psalms of Lament and the Book of Lamentations!

Tonight we ponder these quotes!

"...the best leaders are servant leaders - they serve those they lead." ~ Tony Hsieh

"Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care." ~ Theodore Roosevelt

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." ~ Mahatma Gandhi

"The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people." ~ Woodrow Wilson

"Service is the rent that you pay for room on this earth." ~ Shirley Chisholm

"Good leaders must first become good servants." ~ Robert K. Greenleaf

"Serving others prepares you to lead others." ~ Jim George

"To lead people, walk beside them ... As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate ... When the best leader's work is done the people say, 'We did it ourselves!" ~ Laozi

"You only need a heart full of grace" ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

"It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership." ~ Nelson Mandela

"Moral authority is another way to define servant leadership because it represents a reciprocal choice between leader and follower. If the leader is principle centered, he or she will develop moral authority. If the follower is principle centered, he or she will follow the leader. In this sense, both leaders and followers are followers. Why? They follow truth. They follow natural law. They follow principles. They follow a common, agreed-upon vision. They share values. They grow to trust one another." ~ Robert K. Greenleaf

"Slaves do what others want. Servants do what others need." ~ James Hunter

Biblical Verses on Servanthood:

Mark 9:35
Sitting down, He called the twelve and *said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”

Luke 17:9
He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he?

Mark 9:35
Sitting down, He called the twelve and *said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”

Luke 17:9
He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he?

Isaiah 24:2
And the people will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the maid like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor.

Romans 14:4
Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

2 Kings 6:15
Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”

Proverbs 30:22
Under a slave when he becomes king,
And a fool when he is satisfied with food,

Matthew 23:11
But the greatest among you shall be your servant.

Galatians 4:7
Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

Colossians 1:25
Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God,

Luke 12:47
And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes,

Exodus 21:5
But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,’

Philippians 2:7
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

Romans 1:1
Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

Exodus 21:2
“If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment.

Psalm 123:2
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,
As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
So our eyes look to the Lord our God,
Until He is gracious to us.

Ephesians 6:8
knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.

2 Timothy 2:24
The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged,

Job 1:8
The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.”

1 Kings 8:28
Yet have regard to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You today;

Genesis 16:1
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar.

Luke 17:7
“Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come immediately and sit down to eat’?

Matthew 18:27
And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt.

Hebrews 3:5
Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later;

Acts 3:26
For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.”

Mark 10:44
and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all.

John 12:26
If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

Jude 1:1
Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:

Psalm 86:4
Make glad the soul of Your servant,
For to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

Psalm 119:17
Gimel.
Deal bountifully with Your servant,
That I may live and keep Your word.

2 Peter 1:1
Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:

Matthew 12:18
“Behold, My Servant whom I have chosen;
My Beloved in whom My soul is well-pleased;
I will put My Spirit upon Him,
And He shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

1 Corinthians 4:2
In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.

Numbers 11:28
Then Joshua the son of Nun, the attendant of Moses from his youth, said, “Moses, my lord, restrain them.”

1 Samuel 9:7
Then Saul said to his servant, “But behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? For the bread is gone from our sack and there is no present to bring to the man of God. What do we have?”

1 Samuel 17:58
Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” And David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.”

2 Kings 5:20
But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, thought, “Behold, my master has spared this Naaman the Aramean, by not receiving from his hands what he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after him and take something from him.”

1 Samuel 19:4
Then Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Do not let the king sin against his servant David, since he has not sinned against you, and since his deeds have been very beneficial to you.

Matthew 20:25
But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.

Proverbs 14:35
The king’s favor is toward a servant who acts wisely,
But his anger is toward him who acts shamefully.

Isaiah 52:13
Behold, My servant will prosper,
He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.

Come let us worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!

Jesus said, ‘I am with you always, to the end of the world.’ Matthew 28:20

We have a great high priest who has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Hebrews 4:14

It is the God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. 2 Corinthians 4:6-10

The disciples worshipped Jesus and went back to Jerusalem full of joy; and were continually in the temple, praising God. Luke 24:52, 53

Sing praises to God’s holy name: make a highway for the one who rides on the clouds, whose name is the Lord, in whose presence exult. Psalm 68:4

O Gracious Light Phos hilaron

O gracious Light,
pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,
O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!
Now as we come to the setting of the sun,
and our eyes behold the vesper light,
we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,
O Son of God, O Giver of life,
and to be glorified through all the worlds.

Let us engage in a time of silence. Please get out your timers and set them for 20 minutes.

After the period of 20 minutes of mindfulness and our eyes being closed let us use this format for our time of prayer and breathing:

First breathe in the Holy Spirit and let your lungs expand with love and energy.
Exhale love and feel empowered with compassion and mercy.

God let our spirits be renewed this night and that we may rest and awaken to serve and worship God on the morrow.

Inhale the Holy Spirit, exhale love!

God we pray for all those who are ill that they may be healed that they may feel God's healing and life giving spirit.