I have a t-shirt that says on the front, “God Loves Everybody, but I am His Favorite.” I get a lot of comments when I wear it, which I enjoy. The question comes up, “does God have favorites?” And the answer is yes; many verses demonstrate that.

James 2:23 Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God.

Not many people have the title, “friend of God.”

Today, God’s favorites are His servants, those who are in the elite group who God works through and who He calls His friends. Check out these verses and see if those who are His servants aren’t His favorites.

Psalms 143:12 And in Your lovingkindness, cut off my enemies and destroy all those who afflict my soul,
for I am Your servant.

Psalms 19:13 Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; Let them not rule over me.

Psalms 31:14-17 But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord,
I say, “You are my God.” My times are in Your hand;
Make Your face to shine upon Your servant.

Psalms 34:22 The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.

Psalms 69:16-17 Answer me, O Lord, for Your lovingkindness is good; According to the greatness of Your compassion, turn to me, and do not hide Your face from Your servant.

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

Psalms 119:65 You have dealt well with Your servant,
O Lord, according to Your word.

Psalms 119:124-125 Deal with Your servant according to Your lovingkindness and teach me Your statutes.
I am Your servant; give me understanding, that I may know Your testimonies.

Psalms 119:135 Make Your face shine upon Your servant, and teach me Your statutes.

Psalms 135:14 For the Lord will judge His people
and will have compassion on His servants.

Psalms 143:12 And in Your lovingkindness, cut off my enemies and destroy all those who afflict my soul,
for I am Your servant.

Are you the servant of God? Jesus chose His disciples and He chooses His servants today. There was a reason that He chose the twelve to be with Him and to be trained by Him; his choosing wasn’t arbitrary or haphazard.

Many choose not to be a servant of Jesus because it appears the cost is to high, but check out the blessings mentioned in these verses again.

If you want to be a servant of Jesus go back and read my last ten blogs.

An easy thing to observe from reading the Bible is that God punishes nations , especially those that were once godly and have fallen away from Him. Israel fell under the judgment of God many times as you read the Old Testament books of Judges, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel.

The consequences that He sovereignly brings about are natural disasters, pestilence, a lousy economy, bad and crazy leadership, and having other nations humiliate us. It seems like the United States of America is under the judgment of God, and if so things will get rapidly worse until things change.

Some observations that can be made from history are;

1 – It is during these times of judgment when God will do significant things through strong servants. It was during times of Judgment that God raised up Daniel, Gideon, Samson, and many others.

2. God loves to do great things through small numbers of people. God doesn’t need a lot of people but he does require commitment from those He uses.

3. Those who are totally committed to following and serving Him receive great strength. God doesn’t give big assignments without giving all that is needed to accomplish the assignment successfully.

4. The purpose of God’s judgments are not primarily to punish, but to convince. To stir people to seek Him as the solution to fear and anxiety over the future instead of the world.

5. A requirement of God in order to be used by Him as one of His servants is a compassion for the lost, those with no answers and no hope. Those who will spend all eternity suffering in the Lake of Fire if they don’t repent and turn to God.

Matthew 9:12-13 But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Philippians 2:19-22 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you. . . For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare. For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus. But you know of his proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel.

Every day I pray and ask God to raise up champions in JBC and that he will use us to bring many, many lost people to salvation; now is the time.

2 Timothy 2:3 Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

Those who serve Jesus well and bear much fruit often have a hard life; it is part of the price that God asks those who follow and serve Him to pay.

2 Corinthians 11:24-26 Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren;

Several years ago a young man I knew joined the Navy and said that he had his sights set on becoming a Navy Seal. I had been on a hunting/camping trip with him and I thought, “I don’t think he has what it will take to become a Seal,” he is a wimp.

In order to be given the opportunities, the power, and the authority that God gives to those who are His soldiers we must be completely committed to following Jesus. Many get right up to the “fully devoted” part and back off because they are afraid of the cost.

Wimps have a lot of fears; soldiers for Jesus have none. Wimps complain about problems, strong followers of Jesus grumble about nothing. Wimps bad mouth and criticize champions for Jesus because they live life on the edge.

Servants of Jesus have all the fun! They get thrown into fiery furnaces, they get thrown into lion’s dens, they kill giants and bears and lions, and sometimes they die, but Jesus welcomes them to sit at His right hand. When Jesus comes and sets up His kingdom on earth wimps will live in Fargo, North Dakota.

The first requirement to be on Jesus’s team is to have a “want to,” you have to want to do something with your life that matters, to make a difference. Those who bear much fruit for God have a longing in their heart to do more. They are not lukewarm, lazy, apathetic, indifferent, or easily satisfied.

The second requirement is that of all the things we do in life, serving Jesus is number one. We work at keeping our life simple and unintangled from the world. The number one reason so many Christians do so little for God is that they have no time, they have used it all up on other things.

The third requirement to be a person that Jesus appoints or chooses to serve Him is that you love people, you are kind to them, you have learned the skill of getting along with most anyone, and people like you. You are constantly working at being a relational genius.

The fourth requirement is that you are a seeker of wisdom, you are a learner, you are constantly acquiring new skills to be more productive. You don’t get locked into doing things the easy, natural way, the way you have always done it. You look around and see who is bearing much fruit and you don’t let pride keep you from learning new skills from them, you ask good questions, you ask for counsel, for coaching, you are not a “know it all.”

The fifth requirement to be a champion is to have the character trait of diligence.

Proverbs 10:4 Poor is he who works with a negligent hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.

Proverbs 12:27 A lazy man does not roast his prey,
but the precious possession of a man is diligence.

Romans 12:11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;

Proverbs 14:23 In all labor there is profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.

Proverbs 21:5The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.

2 Timothy 2:5-7 Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules. The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops. Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

As you observe those, who are very productive in any area of life, nothing is more evident than that they are all very hard workers.

I shared yesterday how I went from being a cold, stoic introvert to a warm, outgoing, cuddly teddy bear. OK that is a bit of a hyperbole, but I changed a lot because I knew I had to if I was going to succeed as a servant of Jesus. I had to relate to people if I was going to influence them, teach them, and lead them as their pastor. I strengthened my strengths, compensated for my non-strengths, and learned new skills. I didn’t have to be locked into a particular way of acting even though I was most comfortable in that role.

My strengths are that I am very goal-oriented, highly motivated to accomplish my goals, very focused, obsessed, and driven to achieve my goals. I manage my time well and achieve a lot in a short amount of time compared to many. I lead well and motivate and inspire people to work together to achieve important goals. This is who I am by God’s design, it is my temperament and giftedness.

What I do easily and naturally I have tried to teach to many people so that they can acquire it as a skill. My strengths, abilities, and gifts are very beneficial in ministry and those who learn the skills that I have enhance their ministry effectiveness a lot.

But I have experienced a lot of resistance and pushback from people-oriented extroverts, who are intuitive, free-flowing, gracious, and relaxed in temperament and personality. Their argument is that is who God made them so they are just going to be and act the way they are, and not learn to act more like me, even if it does improve significantly what they are able to accomplish with their life.

I made a concerted effort to change, grow and learn the skill of being a relational genius; well at least I moved up from being an idiot, if not a genius. I did that though I was not comfortable in that role because I knew it was necessary to be a successful servant of Jesus.

It bugs the heck out of me that there are so many who refuse to make an effort to improve their skill set in order to be more effective as a leader and servant of Jesus, and they remain mediocre in the results of their life. And then they excuse and justify their lack of fruit-bearing by saying “I yam who I yam, and that’s all I yam.”

Those of you my age know that was one of Popeye the Sailor Man’s main sayings. “I yam who I yam, and that’s all I yam!” We all are born with temperaments, bents, personality types, gifts, and abilities. Patty and I had eight children, and they were all very different from day one. Six and seven were twins, so their differences were even more apparent. There are a lot of different tests available today to tell us what kind of person we are. They are very helpful in understanding ourselves, but I often hear people using their temperament or personality type or even their spiritual gift to excuse irresponsible or lazy living. “I yam who I yam,” implying that I can’t change, or grow or learn skills, because that is just the way “I yam.”

One of the reasons that I was so reluctant to leave the dairy to become a pastor is because I knew what I was like, and it didn’t seem compatible with pastoring people. I was painfully uncomfortable around people I didn’t know, and being in a situation where I had to enter into conversations and make small talk would literally cause me to break out in a sweat. For year’s I justified being a relational idiot as a pastor because “I yam who I yam.” Then I started meeting with Dr. Joe. At one of our lunch encounters, he said, “You are standing before Jesus at the end of your life at the ‘Judgment seat of Christ’ and He asks you how many people you influenced to follow Him, and you say none because You made me shy.” “How do you think that will go over with Jesus?” And then he gave me one of his classic sayings, “Strengthen your strengths, compensate for your non-strengths, and learn and practice skills.” You can learn to play the piano even if you aren’t gifted in music, you can learn how to sell cars for a living even if you are an introvert, and you can learn how to carry on a meaningful conversation with anybody, anywhere though you would rather be fishing by yourself. He suggested that I read the books, “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie and “Relational Intelligence” by Steve Saccone. I read both and have read dozens of similar books in the 30 years since that impactful meeting.

When I was Freshman in College the school that I attended had a popularity contest. It wasn’t really a contest; it was just a class survey that everyone filled out. There were several categories that each student was supposed to put a name behind, “Most likely to succeed, ” Smartest, ” “Most liked, ” and several other categories. I remember two things about the survey, I wasn’t in the top ten in any of the categories, and Patty Burtner, now Patty Duke, was voted “Most liked or Most Popular.” How we got together and ended up marrying is a mystery to everyone who knew us both.

So if you wanted to win the “Most Popular” category and had six months to impress, influence, and win people over to voting for you, what would you do, how would you act?

2 Timothy 2:24-25 has a description of what to do. “The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition,”

There are two reasons to work hard at being liked; one is because of your ego, the second is because you want to increase your ability to influence people toward faith in Christ. The fact is the more people genuinely like you, the more influence you have in their life.

When I started Pastoring, I had several mentors that I met regularly with, experienced Pastors and leaders who taught me how to succeed in ministry. One of them was Dr. Joe Aldrich who was President of Multnomah Bible College. I learned a lot from him, and I remember a lot of what he taught me because he had these “sayings” that he would repeat regularly. One of them was, “We are supposed to love everybody but some are easier to love than others, if you are going to Pastor people you have to be loveable, people won’t learn from or follow someone who is not.”

The first time he said that I thought, “I am in trouble; I probably ought to go back to dairy farming.” Over the years I have made being a person that people like a major pursuit of my life. It really helps being married to Patty and learning from her because she really is very lovable. I have read many books on the subject and observe those who I enjoy being with and try to learn from them.

I often hear people say, “I don’t care if people like me or not, ” or, “that is just the way I am, take me or leave me.” I used to say that because I am an introvert, not very outgoing or personable but as Dr. Joe often said, “we have the ability to grow and change, especially if our motive is pure. We are not changing who and what we are, we are changing how we act.”

Back to 2 Timothy 2:24, “ The Lord’s bond-servant must. . .” That means it is required and that we can.

Mark 3:14 Jesus appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach,

Luke 10:1 Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.

Today Jesus appoints or chooses believers to do His work. There are qualifications that the Lord has set to be one of those He gives assignments and opportunities to. We need to know what they are and actively work at making them reality in our lives.

Yesterday I described what I call the first requirement, and today I will write about the second.

If we are going to be a servant of Jesus we must make serving Him the highest priority of our lives, it is first place in all that we do and value in this life. That doesn’t mean we don’t have a job, own a house, go fishing, and play computer games, but it does mean that we have those other activities under control and that we would never pass on an opportunity the Lord would give us because of a life out of balance.

2 Timothy 2:4 No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

Matthew 6:33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

What is required is a continuous evaluation of our lifestyle and use of time, and that we are constantly working at simplifying our life. We pick up new stuff that needs to be taken care of, and of course used, routine activities that become part of our life, and addictions like a magnet draws iron filings. Every year I rent a 10 yard dumpster and we fill it. Where does that stuff come from? It just drops out of the sky!

If the first requirement is genuine in your life, that is you have a super strong desire to serve the Lord and do something with your life that matters, then you must often ask the question, “how am I doing exercising self-control over the lust of the world, keeping my life simple, managing my time well, and keeping serving Jesus first place in my life.

Regular, honest, serious self-examination of priorities is required of those who are servants of Jesus.

The Apostle Paul called himself the Lord’s bond-servant at the beginning and in most of his letters that he wrote. Jesus invited us to be and Paul encouraged all those who read his letters to be the servants of Jesus doing His work on this planet. When Jesus was here on the earth as a man, He was His method of accomplishing His work on this world. But now He is in heaven and His bond-servants are His method in accomplishing His work. The servants of Jesus are the ones He works through to accomplish His will and plan on earth, that is His method and strategy. Being a servant of Jesus is where the action is.

Today there are many who are believers in Jesus, Christians, but they are’t His servants. I compare it to a basketball team of 15 players, but only five are on the floor playing, striving to win, the rest are on the bench. The critical question is, “do you like being on the bench?” I played basketball in High School and college and spent most of my time on the bench, and I hated every minute of it. I can find a dozen requirements in Scripture that need to be in our life if we are going to be worthy to be the hands, feet, and voice of Jesus in this world.

The first requirement to be a servant of Jesus is that you must have a strong desire to be used by Him, to do something with your life that matters for all eternity, you must want it, really want it. This is what it means to be hot instead of lukewarm. Every morning I declare to Jesus that I want to be His servant, and I plead with Him to give me more to do for Him. A casual desire that says, “I will serve Him if it works out, if it is convenient, if I have time, if I am not to tired, doesn’t cut it with Jesus.

A great place to start this journey is to ask yourself how hot you really are.