Our Servant Personalities

Today in church, our pastor gave a very good lesson on discovering how we can be better servants.  It's a series he's doing...and today he talked about our personalities.  Great lesson...I really benefited from it, and I hope you do to!  :)

Mark 12:30-31 – Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'  The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

Discovering our servant personalities

Talkers – love God with all their hearts

• Purpose: The world needs communication
• Prov 12:18 - Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
• Prov 14:3 - A fool's talk brings a rod to his back, but the lips of the wise protect them.
• Matt 15:18 - But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.'
• Luke 6:45 - The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.
• Weakness: more you talk, more likely your foot will end up in your mouth; prov 10:15? (more you talk more likely to sin);
• Warning: talkers need to do something about it, not just talk about it.  mere words are not enough…people need to see action. We need to walk what we talk.
• Prov 29:19 - A servant cannot be corrected by mere words; though he understands, he will not respond.

Feelers – Love God with all their soul

• Purpose: The world needs more than just words.  We need compassion and emotional connection
• Eph 4:32 - Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
• Weakness: Can feel deeply, but never really get any action done.  Can be tempted more by their emotions.
• Warning: You have to let GOD lead you and NOT your feelings.
• Psalms 42:1 - As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.

 Thinkers – love God with all their minds

• Purpose: things need consideration; thought; examination
• Weakness: pride and indecision
• I Corinthians 8:1 - Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
• II Tim 3:7 - always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.
• Warning: don’t be too impressed with your own wisdom – God is God and you are not.  Do not believe you are not smarter than the situation
• James 1:22 - Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
• Psalm 119:97 - Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.

Doers – love God with all of their strength

• Purpose: The world needs contribution
• Romans 12:1 - Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
• Weakness: work, work, over-work…too busy to stop and think about what they are doing;
• Psalm 127:2 - In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat - for he grants sleep to those he loves.
• Warning: don’t forget why you are working and why you are doing what you are doing. Do everything FOR GOD’S GLORY
• Luke 10:38-42 - As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"   "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."
• Psalm 116:16 - O LORD, truly I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant; you have freed me from my chains.

What we need to do: know who we are…and know which parts we need to work on more.

From this study, I have thought about my personality.  Who am I?  How do I approach things?  I think I am first a thinker, but a close second is a feeler.  I am a doer, but I could do more.  I study more than I get out and do things.  I'm very shy and I like to be alone, so I often tell myself that I'm ok just studying the Bible more.  This leads us to talker...I'm not really a talker at all...in person.  Perhaps I have a bigger voice online, but in person I'm very quiet.  I'm not the loud person, I'm not the conversational person.  I say what needs to be said and that's all.  :)  Certainly, this study has got me thinking (thinker!  lol), and I know that I need to boost my 'doer' and 'talker' self a little bit.  All four aspects are important to being a strong Christian...and a strong person in general.  It's ok to be stronger in some areas, but I need to make sure that my communication and action sides are getting some screen time too!

Do you know what personality you have?  Do you know where your strengths and weaknesses are?