The Heart of a Follower: Servant Leadership in a Self-Exalting World

 Everyone wants to be great, but not everyone wants to serve. We admire power, celebrate authority, and strive for influence. But what if true greatness isn’t about how many people listen to you, but how many people you are willing to serve? What if leadership isn’t about climbing to the top, but about lowering yourself to lift others?

There’s a difference between being an admirer of Jesus and being a follower.

An admirer appreciates Jesus’ teachings, quotes His best lines, and acknowledges His wisdom. But a follower? A follower imitates Him. A follower doesn’t just love what Jesus says, they live the way He lived.

That difference matters, especially when it comes to leadership.

Greatness in the Kingdom: A Radical Concept

Jesus flipped the world’s definition of greatness upside down.

“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28)

That’s a hard concept to grasp. We tend to measure greatness by how much power someone has, how many people obey them, or how influential their voice is. But Jesus redefined leadership: it’s not about commanding; it’s about serving.

And it’s not just a suggestion, it’s the example we’re called to follow.

If Jesus, the King of Kings, lowered Himself to wash feet, who are we to see service as beneath us?

David: A King with a Servant’s Heart

Before David became a great king, he was a humble servant.

Think about it, he was anointed as king while Saul was still reigning. He had every right to claim the throne. But instead of rushing to take what was promised to him, he waited. And not just waited, he served a king who tried to kill him.

It would have been understandable if David had fought back. If he had used his anointing as an excuse to force his way into leadership. If he had planned a coup.

But he didn’t.

He kept serving. He trusted that if God had truly chosen him, then God would establish him at the right time.

And that’s what made him different from Saul.

Saul saw leadership as something he had to hold onto. He saw his throne as his, something he had to defend at all costs. That fear turned him into a mad king, obsessed with control, unable to trust God’s plan.

David, on the other hand, saw leadership as a stewardship. He understood that if God placed him there, then it wasn’t his to fight for, it was his to faithfully walk in, in God’s timing.

And that’s why God called him a man after His own heart.

For the longest time, I thought leadership meant proving I belonged. That if I didn’t defend my position, people would walk over me. That if I didn’t assert myself, I would look weak.

I used to believe that silence in the face of injustice made me a doormat. That serving when I wasn’t being appreciated made me naive. That if I didn’t fight back, people would assume I wasn’t strong enough to stand my ground.

But then I looked at David. I looked at Jesus.

And I realized that true strength isn’t found in defending myself, it’s found in trusting God to do it for me.

David never had to fight for his place. He didn’t have to scheme or manipulate or prove that he was worthy of the throne. He just served, and in due time, God fulfilled His promise.

Jesus, the most powerful one of all, didn’t waste time defending Himself. He let His humility speak for itself. And in the end, it was His willingness to serve that made Him be exalted above all.

I am learning that I don’t need to grasp for control. I don’t need to defend my name. I don’t need to prove my worth by demanding recognition.

God sees. God knows. And if He has placed me somewhere, I don’t need to fight to stay there.

Choosing the Heart of David Over the Heart of Saul

Here’s the reality: there’s a little bit of David and a little bit of Saul in all of us.

We all have moments where we want to take control, defend ourselves, or prove our greatness. But we also have the capacity to trust, to serve, and to lead with humility.

The question is, which heart will we cultivate?

Will we choose to serve even when it’s inconvenient?

Will we trust God’s timing instead of forcing our own way?

Will we see greatness as giving instead of taking?

Jesus told His disciples that the greatest in the kingdom is the one who serves (Matthew 23:11). But serving is hard when we still believe greatness is about being admired, not about being imitated.

So, as you analyze your own heart, just as I am analyzing mine, ask yourself:

• Do I lead like Jesus, or do I lead like Saul?

• Do I trust God to establish me, or do I fight to prove myself?

• Do I see serving others as weakness, or do I recognize it as true greatness?

The choice is ours.

Let’s choose to be followers, not just admirers.

Let’s choose to serve, not just lead.

Let’s choose to build God’s kingdom, not just our own.

Because in the end, true leadership doesn’t look like a throne. It looks like a towel and a basin of water.

It looks like Jesus.