A Cause Greater Than Ourselves

January 17, 2023

Martin Luther King famously said, “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.”

He wasn’t the first one to convey this profound truth. Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be the greatest must be the servant of all.”

That’s foreign to us today. We live in a world where we’d rather be famous than great. The tragedy is, that perspective brings a sense of hollowness instead of fulfillment.

Martin Luther King was a person who served a cause greater than himself. King stated, "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’"

We are all born with privileges of which we may not be aware. Maybe we were raised in a good home, given opportunities others were not. Many people didn’t even get the privilege of a healthy life. Whatever your privilege may be, it’s important to acknowledge that there is always someone out there less fortunate who needs help. When you seek to serve, your life will be filled with more joy than you can imagine.

The core of servant leadership is to seek to serve others and to add value to their lives. That's the ultimate benchmark for measuring the value of an organization and its leadership. Nowhere is this truer than the church.

King also said, “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” Love is the motivation to serve. If we at NewPointe become a great church, it will not be determined by our size or even by our influence. It will be determined by how well we serve the needs of our community and world.

When we serve other people, we don’t just help the person in need. Because humans are social by nature, we have an intrinsic desire to help one another. Helping others allows us to become part of something bigger than ourselves. Helping others helps you grow as an individual. This is what makes you great, and the best part is that we can all help others in our own way.

Dr. King said about working together: “We will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope." If we want to truly bring social change, we must have hope that we can make a difference. Hopelessness paralyzes. We have to keep hope alive, not just for ourselves but for the ones we want to help.

Bringing a brighter future is central to following Jesus. We are to be lights in a dark world, bringing hope in the face of despair. Everything we do matters.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." – Martin Luther King

"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life." – Jesus

“You are the light of the world.” – Jesus