Month 3 - Servanthood | Week 3 - Serving In Secret

Scriptural anchors for us through M3 - Week 3:

“But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” - Matthew 6:3–4 (ESV)

Jesus isn’t merely forbidding pride; He’s forming purity of motive (Psalm 51:10).He is reshaping His disciples from the inside out so their service flows from love, not applause (1 Corinthians 13:3).

The Hidden Places & The Holy Ones

Advancements in the Kingdom rarely begin on the stage.They begin in the shadows.

Jesus didn’t say, “When you serve, announce it.” He said,

“When you give… when you pray… when you fast… do it in secret.”(See Matthew 6:1–6, 16–18)

This is the same Jesus who taught,

“The kingdom of God is like leaven… hidden in flour” (Matthew 13:33).

The Kingdom grows in hidden places long before it appears in visible ones.

Month 3 has confronted our obsession with visibility and recognition. But Week 3 cuts deeper:

The real test of a servant is this: Will you serve God when no one is watching except Him?

This week is about the quiet yes.The unnoticed obedience.The hidden faithfulness that forms Christlike greatness.

Quiet, Unnoticed, Hidden. Yes, Obedience, Faithfulness.

God does His loudest work in the quiet places.Just ask Elijah, who heard God not in the wind, earthquake, or fire, but “in the low whisper” (1 Kings 19:11–12).

The Secret Place Is Where God Measures Greatness

Heaven’s scoreboard isn’t public.It’s hidden, and far more valuable.

The world measures success by output.God measures it by obedience (1 Samuel 15:22).

Serving in secret burns away every false motive:

No ego

No platform

No recognition

No transaction

No earthly reward but Him - The only reward worth having.

When David was anointed king, he smelled like sheep.No crowds.No ceremony.Just faithfulness in the field (1 Samuel 16:11–13).

God saw him long before Israel did, just like He sees the one who

“walks blamelessly and does what is right… in his heart” (Psalm 15:1–2).

And Jesus reminded us in last week’s dispatch that,

“The greatest among you shall be your servant” (Matthew 23:11).

The secret place is the crucible of every servant God raises.

The Story of Ruth: Fidelity in the Shadows

Ruth’s entire discipleship began in obscurity.

She gleaned in the fields behind harvesters (Ruth 2:3).

She cared for Naomi when no one was watching (Ruth 1:16–17).

She worked from sunrise to sunset with no applause, praise, or platform.

Yet every act was seen by the Lord who weighs the heart (Proverbs 21:2).

Boaz eventually says to her:

“All that you have done… has been fully known.”- Ruth 2:11 (ESV)

Her hidden faithfulness led to:

Redemption (Ruth 4:13–15)

Provision (Ruth 2:14–16)

Legacy (Ruth 4:18–22)

Her place in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:5)

Ruth teaches us this:God sees what man overlooks.Obscurity is not God hiding you - it is God forming you.Those who humble themselves will be exalted (Luke 14:11).

Your quiet yes is building something eternal.

Secret Service Purifies the Heart

Jesus isn’t saying, “Don’t do good.”He is saying, “Don’t do it just to be seen.” (Matthew 6:1)

The Pharisees served publicly to gain social status (Matthew 23:5).The disciples were tempted to do the same.And so are we, often, if we are honest with ourselves.

But Jesus cuts through the noise:

“Your Father who sees in secret…”

This is the reward:

He sees you (Genesis 16:13 - “El Roi,” the God who sees)

He knows the cost (Hebrews 6:10)

He delights in your obedience (Psalm 147:11)

He transforms you through service (Philippians 2:3–8)

The world shouts for attention.The Kingdom grows in silence - like seeds in the soil (Mark 4:26–29).

Attention and the desire to be seen by anyone other than our Father, our King, our Saviour, the Creator of All Things, seems a bit silly when we take a second to recalibrate the feeling.

Who else could be worthy of our desire to be seen?

Has visibility become an idol of its own in our lives?

It doesn’t say that when Christ returns, he will do something to get recognition from the World. It says that when Christ returns, and he will, every knee WILL bow. That is the King, the external-universal strength and power that we are being seen and loved by. Let the Glory of that truth, the light of his love, flood and settle with you; let that acknowledgment settle.

That if every human turned away from you, his gaze alone, those golden fiery eyes would set you forward towards higher glory through lower service.

Practice: Three Secret Acts of Service This Week

1. Hidden generosity

“When you give… do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”Buy groceries.Bless someone quietly.Give without your name attached (2 Corinthians 9:7).

2. Unseen intercession

Pray for one person daily without telling them.Jesus often withdrew to pray alone (Luke 5:16).God moves powerfully through secret intercession (Colossians 1:9–10).

3. Quiet sacrifice

Do the unglamorous job.Wash feet the way Jesus did (John 13:14–15).Serve without expectation of return (Luke 6:35).

Your Father sees.He rewards (Hebrews 11:6).And He forms Christ in you (Galatians 4:19).

Reflection Questions

Where do you feel the tension between wanting to be seen and wanting to serve?

What’s one secret act of obedience God is prompting in your spirit (James 1:22)?

Which part of your walk with God has drifted into performance rather than presence?

When have you seen God use a small, unseen act in a big way later on (Galatians 6:9)?

How can hidden service protect your heart from pride, comparison, or burnout (Philippians 2:3)?

Watch / Listen / Read

Watch

Francis Chan - The Power of a Quiet Life

In this impactful message, Francis Chan calls believers back to the quiet, hidden life of devotion that pleases God, not the loud, performance-driven spirituality our culture rewards. He contrasts the noise of public religion with the depth of a private walk with God, reminding us that the most meaningful fruit often grows where no one else can see but the Father.

Read

Hiddenness: The Furnace of Formation - LINK

If you are looking to deepen your grasp of serving in secret, spend time in this short reading from Andrew Murray’s classic Humility - chapter 2 and 3 in particular. Murray argues that humility is the very root of Christlikeness, and that the way God shapes humility is not through public triumphs but through hidden surrender.

He writes:“Humility is simply the disappearance of self in the vision that God is all.”And that disappearance almost always happens in the places no one sees.

Murray points to Jesus’ 30 silent years - no miracles, no sermons, no crowds.Just faithfulness.Just obedience.Just hiddenness.

Listen

Jonathan Ogden

- Set Me Free

This song is a tender, intimate prayer of returning to the quiet place where only God sees and to things only God can do. Ogden sings about the longing for closeness with the Father, not in public expression, but in the hidden room of the heart. The lyrics draw you into stillness - into the space where worship is unpolished, unseen, and deeply personal.

It’s a reminder that the truest devotion is not the loudest, but the most surrendered.

Choir of the Sretensky Monastery - “Cherubic Hymn” (G. Lvovsky)

This hymn is one of the most profound expressions of hidden worship in the Eastern Church. Sung slowly and reverently, the “Cherubic Hymn” draws the listener into a holy stillness, an atmosphere where the heart bows low before the mysteries of God.

The lyrics, “Let us who mystically represent the Cherubim,” call us to participate in heavenly worship with reverence, humility, and unseen devotion.

It is the sound of the hidden life Jesus describes in Matthew 6, a life lived before the Father’s eyes, not the world’s.

📅 This Week’s 30-Min Rally Point

We’ll meet for our first 30-minute rally point this Thursday at 7:00 PM EST via Zoom.This is a space for reflection, encouragement, and activation, a rhythm of checking in, praying together, and pressing forward.

🕖 Zoom Time: Thursday @ 7:00 PM EST🔗 Click to join the Zoom call - Zoom URL

Format:

Welcome & Opening Prayer (2 min)

Scripture Reading (3 min)

Teaching Recap (5 min)

Discussion Questions (12 min)

Heart-Level Questions:

Head-Level Questions:

Hands-Level Questions:

Practice Together (5 min)

Closing Encouragement & Prayer (3 min)

Bring a Bible, a journal, and any wins or wrestles you want to share. This is a safe space to grow.

Next Week's Topic: M3 - Servanthood | W4 - Fruitful Service

Our anchor scripture for W4 is;

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5 (ESV)

“…your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:58 (ESV)

If Week 3 is about the hidden work of servanthood,Week 4 is about the harvest that only God can bring from it.

We’ll explore:

How God multiplies what is offered in secret (John 12:24)

Why faithfulness always precedes fruitfulness (Luke 16:10)

How the Spirit empowers every act of service—seen or unseen (1 Corinthians 12:4–7)

What it means to bear “fruit that will last” (John 15:5,16)

This week, don’t aim for visibility - aim for Jesus. Your Father sees in secret. And in His Kingdom, the hidden places are where greatness is born.

God is with us!

Father, train our hearts to love the secret place. Strip from us the craving to be noticed, celebrated, or affirmed by others. Make us like Jesus, who “did not come to be served but to serve”. Form humility in us. Form purity in us. Form Christ in us. May our unseen obedience rise as worship to You alone.Amen.

I’m glad you’re here.

Let’s run the race - Eyes Up, Chin Up!

Grace and peace,

Sam Johnston

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