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 David Servant ( - )
Read freely text sermons and articles by the speaker David Servant in text and pdf format. David Servant is the Founder of Heavens Family, helping the least of these world-wide. David Servant has been serving in ministry since 1979 as a church-planter, pastor, teacher and missionary. When David Servant read the results of his high-school vocational aptitude test, he laughed. The results told him that he was best suited for a career in ministry or in entertainment. At the time, David's future goal was to live in a log cabin in the wilderness and live off the land for the rest of his life. The Lord, however, had different plans for David Servant. God didn't intend for him to run away from the world, but rather to play a part in changing the world by building God's kingdom. David received his call to ministry during his (reluctant) freshman year at Penn State, and one year later was enrolled in Bible School.
David Servant is the author of eight books, including Forever Rich, and the The Disciple-Making Minister, a 500-page equipping manual that has been translated into more than 20 languages and is being distributed to tens of thousands of pastors.
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showing from 451 to 500 of 542 articles
Jesus' Final Words to His Disciples John 16:5-33
As we read today, we realize what an advantage we have over Jesus' disciples, because we understand what they didn't. Unlike them, we know exactly what Jesus meant when He said, "In just a little while I will be gone, and you won't see me anymore. Then, j ... read more
Jesus' First Disciples John 1:35-51
John the Baptist had a group of disciples with whom he was very close. They were men who were very excited that the Messiah was about to appear, and John shared with them everything he knew about spiritual things. Together, they were anticipating that the ... read more
Jesus' First Three Hours on the Cross Matthew 27:32-44
According to John's Gospel, Jesus initially carried His own cross on the way to Golgotha, but at some point the Roman soldiers forced a man named Simon, visiting from northern Africa, to carry Jesus' cross. Due to His physical condition, Jesus must have b ... read more
Jesus' Forbearance With Unbelievers and His Expectations of Believers Luke 9:51-62
When we read the story of Jesus' meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well, we learned that Jews and Samaritans generally hated each other. Samaritans were a mixed race of Jews and Gentiles, considered impure by other Jews. Jesus, of course, was a Jew, ... read more
Jesus' Mother and Brothers Matthew 12:46-50
This short section in Matthew's Gospel serves as additional evidence that Jesus was God in the form of a human being. Although He had a mother, four half-brothers and at least two half-sisters, He did not think of them like you or I think of our mother, b ... read more
Jesus' Second Three Hours on the Cross and Death Matthew 27:45-56
Although it was now noon, the brightest time of day, we read that there was darkness until Jesus died at three o'clock. We are told very little in the Gospels of what happened during those three hours, but many think that was the time when God's wrath fel ... read more
Jesus' Special Relationship with God the Father John 5:16-47
Rather than rejoicing over the healing of a man who had been lame for thirty-eight years, the Jewish leaders found fault with the man who had been healed, claiming that he was breaking the fourth commandment by carrying his pallet on the Sabbath. They als ... read more
Jesus' Trial Before the Jewish Council Matthew 26:57-75
It was probably very early in the morning and certainly still dark when Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane. This was the plan of the Jewish leaders so that most of the people wouldn't know about what was happening to Jesus. From Gethsemane, He was taken to ... read more
Jesus' Triumphal Entry Into Jerusalem Luke 19:28-44
Jesus had finally made it to Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel, the place where He knew He was destined to die on a cross in one week's time. Many of Jesus' followers, in spite of what He said in the story of the ten servants that we read yesterday, b ... read more
Jesus, the Greatest Prosperity Preacher
"Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return." — Jesus (Luke 6:38).
The primary reason that Scripture ... read more
John the Baptist is Born Luke 1:57-80
When new babies are born, people always make a fuss over them. If you've ever had a baby brother or sister born into your family, you may have felt like your mom and dad forgot about you for a little while. However, the fuss that was made over your baby b ... read more
John the Baptist is Martyred Mark 6:14-29
Herod Antipas, the man who ordered the execution of John the Baptist, was the son of a murderer. His father was Herod the Great, who had once killed his own wife and two of his sons to preserve his power. It was Herod the Great who had also ordered the ki ... read more
John the Baptist Prepares the Way for Jesus Luke 3:1-20
John the Baptist was the greatest evangelist who has ever lived, and today the world needs more evangelists who will imitate him. An evangelist's job is to preach the gospel, and that is what John did. He told people that the Messiah whom they had been wa ... read more
John the Baptist Questions Jesus Luke 7:18-35
While John the Baptist was imprisoned by Herod (see Matthew 11:2), it was apparent that he began to doubt that Jesus actually was the Messiah, even though he had seen the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus at His baptism. Just as we often do, John began to ba ... read more
John's Final Testimony About Jesus John 3:22-36
Today we realize even more what a humble man John the Baptist was. We can learn a lot about humility by considering his words and deeds.
Although John was, according to Jesus, the greatest person to have ever lived (see Matthew 11:11), John knew that J ... read more
Judas Commits Suicide Matthew 27:1-10
When Judas agreed to betray Jesus' whereabouts to the chief priests and elders, he apparently didn't anticipate that it would result in Jesus' crucifixion. When he realized that he would be partly responsible for the death of a man he knew was innocent, h ... read more
Judge Not!
Anyone who holds to any standard of righteousness in our "culture of tolerance" is in trouble. If you say, for example, that homosexuality is a perversion, abortion is murder, sex outside of marriage is a sin, or that Jesus is the only way to heaven, get ... read more
Lend, Expecting Nothing
When I began thinking about Jesus' command to "lend, expecting nothing in return," I initially thought He meant, "Lend, and don't charge any interest on your loans," as I remembered the Mosaic Law forbade the people of Israel to charge interest on loans m ... read more
Lessons from Children
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will ... read more
Living Large on Less
Once you realize that your life is a journey to give an account before the Great Venture Capitalist, and once you've begun to understand how wealthy you are by comparison to most people in the world and learn contentment, and once you've started to obey J ... read more
Luke Summarizes Jesus' Final Days on Earth Luke 24:44-53; Acts 1:1-11
Jesus appeared to His disciples enough times over a period of forty days that all of them became convinced that He had risen from the dead. They were not just having visions, and no one was impersonating Jesus. The apostle Paul informs us in his letter to ... read more
Luke Tells Us More About the Birth of Jesus Luke 2:1-20
Through the Old Testament prophet Micah, God had foretold that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem: "But you, O Bethlehem...are only a small village in Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past" (Micah ... read more
Matthew Tells the Story of Jesus' Birth Matthew 1:18-25
When two people are engaged, that means they've promised to marry each other but are not yet actually married until their wedding. In our day, engaged people sometimes get "disengaged," and when they do, it's usually because one of them has discovered som ... read more
Mustard Seeds and Satan's Weeds Matthew 13:24-43
The people who weren't Jesus' followers heard Him tell many parables, but they didn't understand what He was talking about. Jesus, however, would always explain the parables to His followers later on because they were open to the truth (see Mark 4:34). Ar ... read more
New Clothes and New Wine Luke 5:33-6:5
The Pharisees were a sect of Jews who prided themselves in their holiness. They thought they were fully obeying God's laws and were certain that God especially favored them because of it. Surely God, impressed by how they had kept their religious duties, ... read more
Oh, the Luck that Saves Us?
God chooses people. He chose a man named David, for example, to be a king of Israel.
Quite obviously, God's choice of David was not a random choice. He didn't draw straws up in heaven. Rather, God's choice of David was a calculated, intelligent choice. ... read more
One Reason Why Jesus Became a Human Being John 1:18; Hebrews 1:1-3
Many people have wondered what God is like. They've looked at flowers, snowflakes, hummingbirds and rainbows and realized that God must be very smart and very powerful. The things He's made are amazing! And when people eat a crisp apple, sit by a warm fir ... read more
Pastoring with Less Pain, Part 1 of 2
I've been thinking about a conversation I had not long ago with a friend who is a pastor. He shared his pain regarding some people who had recently left his church. At one time they had been loyal, enthusiastic supporters of his ministry. But their depart ... read more
Pastoring with Less Pain, Part 2
When pastors gather, they sometimes joke that if it weren't for people, pastoring would be a great profession. Indeed, people are the reason that pastoring is sometimes so painful. However, as I contended in June's E-teaching, Pastoring with Less Pain, Pa ... read more
Perplexed Without Context
Imagine that I deliver to you, on behalf of one of your friends, a gift box of assorted chocolates. As you open the box in my presence, I hear you say,
Oh, this is what I was hoping it would be! I love chocolates! And look at this! Peanut butter melt-a ... read more
Profuse Blessings of the Cross
The New Testament authors, in explaining the gospel, used various terms to describe the benefits that are ours because of Christ's sacrificial death. Each one underscores some blessing that the atonement brings, and together they give us a complete pictur ... read more
Revival in Sychar John 4:27-42
When Jesus told this woman at the well of Sychar that He was the Messiah, she had to make a decision that everybody must make: to believe or not to believe. We can't be absolutely certain from what we've read today, but it seems this woman at the well was ... read more
Revival When?
Today I received a letter in the mail. It was from a man who heard me refuting antinomian errors on our daily radio broadcast. He said it was the first letter he’d written to anyone in twelve years.
He confessed that he had been a practicing homosexu ... read more
Sanctification: Perfecting Holiness
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light (Matt. 11:28-30).
... read more
Satan Tempts Jesus Luke 4:1-13
In order for Jesus to die on the cross bearing our sins, it was necessary that He have no sins of His own. If He had committed any sins, then He couldn't have taken our sins and died as our substitute. Therefore, Jesus had to be sinless, and in order to b ... read more
Scaling Down in Disneyland
Last month's E-Teaching, Is Greed Only an Attitude?, about greed not being just an attitude provoked several readers to request practical help on making material adjustments in their lives—for which I thank God. It isn't always easy to see the need to m ... read more
Silver and Gold Have I Quite a Large Sum
Some years ago I was admonished by one of the wealthiest men in my city, a retired CEO of a huge multi-national company, with the following words, "It is the responsibility of guys like you to tell guys like me what God expects of us, lest we not be ready ... read more
So Glad for Guilt
Guilt, that nagging feeling on the inside, is something with which everyone is quite familiar. It doesn’t discriminate on the basis of race, gender or culture. It starts working in us from a very young age and never lets up our entire lives. We are wire ... read more
Straining Out Gnats
Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:19, emphasis added).
Jesus ... read more
Striving Against Sin
“Sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Gen. 4:7, emphasis added).
As was pointed out in the previous chapter, our sanctification is a joint effort on the part of God and ourselves. We grow to be progressi ... read more
Temptation, Sin, Forgiveness, Faith and Obedience Luke 17:1-10
The most important thing that people can and should do is to obey God. More than anything else, God wants our obedience. He does not want the kind of obedience that the Pharisees demonstrated, an outward obedience to man-made laws; He wants an obedience t ... read more
Ten Bridesmaids and Three Servants Matthew 25:1-30
Today's reading is a continuation of Jesus' response to His disciples' questions about His return. The first parable of the ten bridesmaids is a little difficult for us to understand unless we know something about the wedding customs of Jesus' day.
Bac ... read more
The Antinomian "Christian"
It’s 11:40 Sunday morning at your church. The hymns and choruses have been sung, the offering has been received, and now it’s time for the Scripture reading and sermon. Your pastor walks to the pulpit, opens a large black book, takes a deep breath, an ... read more
The Assurance of Salvation
Is it possible to have assurance of salvation? Can a person know for certain that, if he died at this moment, he would be saved? Absolutely yes. The apostle John wrote:
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in or ... read more
The Bad Samaritan John 4:1-26
The people who lived in the region of Samaria came from a mixed ancestry of Jews and Gentiles. Because of that, the Samaritans were hated by the Jews who considered themselves of purer ancestry, and the Samaritans hated them in return. It was the same as ... read more
The Birth of John the Baptist Foretold Luke 1:5-25
This story happened about 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem, Israel. The Jewish people had a big building something like a church that was called the Temple. God had said that all the men who were descendants of Moses' brother, Aaron, were supposed to work at ... read more
The Blind and Mute are Healed Matthew 9:27-34
According to Matthew's Gospel, these two miracles occurred right after the miracles we read about yesterday. Perhaps within the space of only one hour, Jesus healed a woman who had bled internally for twelve years, raised a young girl from the dead, opene ... read more
The Cost of True Discipleship Luke 14:25-33
By studying almost everything that the Gospels record about the life of Jesus, we have an advantage over daily devotionals that only consider random portions of Scripture: we don't avoid or miss anything that God wants us to know about Jesus. The only rec ... read more
The Cross in Practice
Has the cross of Jesus Christ captured your heart? Once we understand the significance of Jesus' death, our lives can never be the same. The cross enables us for the first time to see things clearly. It reinterprets every situation, colors every view, and ... read more
The Cross Predicted
The Gospel writer Luke reports that soon after Jesus' resurrection, He appeared incognito to two disciples traveling to the village of Emmaus. These two men had been discussing the perplexing events that had transpired over the past few days--how Jesus ha ... read more
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