Audio transcription
Welcome again to at present's podcast. We’ve a trio of fascinating emails for you over the subsequent three weeks, Pastor John, as I stay up for the calendar of questions on the desk. What does it imply to serve God? That's at present. Subsequent week: Once we serve God, what can we give him? Are we giving him one thing he doesn't have already got? Does he want us? That's APJ 1957. After which the week after: What does it imply to be religious? Spirituality is a worn out time period in at present's world and we intend to work in the direction of a definition in APJ 1960. It's an fascinating trio of matters, all based mostly on what it means to be a profitable Christian residing a Christian life.
So at present: What does it imply to serve God? The query is from a listener named Amy. “Pastor John, hey. I used to be discussing the phrase “serve the Lord” with a fellow believer the opposite day and I used to be questioning should you might make clear one thing for us. All through Scripture we’re instructed to 'serve the Lord'. Psalm 100:2 says, 'Serve the Lord with gladness'. Deuteronomy 10:12 says, 'Serve the Lord your God with all of your coronary heart and with all of your soul.' Joshua says: 'I and my home will serve the Lord' (Joshua 24:15). And Paul in Romans 12:11 additionally tells us to 'serve the Lord'. However then in Mark 10:45 Jesus says, 'The Son of Man didn’t come to be served, however to serve.' Christians throw across the phrase “serve the Lord” so usually, however I'm undecided I do know what the phrase means. Are you able to clarify that to me?”
I feel this is likely one of the most vital questions a Christian can ask about reside the Christian life in a method that glorifies God and does good to others. He will get to the completely elementary downside of the fitting option to serve God, which honors him and blesses individuals, and the flawed option to serve God, which dishonors him and doesn’t assist individuals. This isn’t a aspect subject. We speak about what it means to be a Christian second by second in actual life.
Let's be clear that Amy is correct, that the Bible nearly in every single place teaches that human beings are to serve God, and when the Son of God comes into the world, we’re to serve him. Within the Previous Testomony, Joshua says, “I and my home will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). After which Paul celebrates the Thessalonian converts as a result of “you may have turned to God from idols to serve the residing and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9).
Repeatedly Paul calls himself and calls Christians “servants”—actually, “slaves”—of Christ and God (Romans 1:1; Ephesians 6:6). Peter does the identical in 1 Peter 2:16 and a couple of Peter 1:1. It’s unmistakable. One biblical option to correctly communicate of the connection we’ve with God is to name ourselves servants or slaves God and Christ. That’s proper. She factors it out and he or she ought to.
Indicator lights
Now, having stated that, we actually need to ask strongly what’s a part of serving God and what’s not a part of serving God. If we start to serve God as if we might earn a wage from him or as if we might meet his wants or as if we might put him in debt and make him our beneficiary, the pink lights of the Bible start to flash very brightly. For instance, in John 15:15, Jesus tells his disciples, “I not name you servants [or slaves], for the servant doesn’t know what his grasp is doing; however I’ve known as you associates, for all that I’ve heard from my Father I’ve made recognized to you.” And but in John 15:14, the earlier verse, he says, “You might be my associates, should you do what I command you. Wow. What’s for a good friend?
So the that means “slave” or “servant” is certified. And the that means of the phrase “good friend” is certified. We are able to't simply assume what we imply servant or good friend that's what Jesus means servant or good friend. We should pay attention.
Or there's one other shiny, flashing pink gentle: “[God is not] served by human arms, as if he wanted one thing, as a result of he himself offers life, breath, and all the pieces to all mankind” (Acts 17:25). So sure, serve him, however not like – not like he wants your service.
“Serve God, however not by pretending to fulfill his wants. Every part belongs to him. He doesn't want your provides.”
Or there’s one other pink flashing gentle. God says, “If I have been hungry, I might not inform you, for the world and its fullness are mine. . . . [You] name upon me within the day of bother; I’ll ship you, and you’ll glorify me” (Psalm 50:12, 15). This was considered one of Spurgeon's favourite verses. He known as it the Robinson Crusoe textual content as a result of he quotes it within the e book. Sure, serve God, however not by pretending to fulfill his wants. Every part belongs to him. He doesn't want your provides. We name him in instances of want, not the opposite method round.
Right here is one other pink flashing gentle. Amy quoted it. “The Son of Man didn’t come to be served” – that's a fairly clear warning – “however to serve and to present his life as a ransom for a lot of” (Mark 10:45). He saves us; we received't save him. It fulfills our want; we don't meet his want.
Right here is one other flashing pink warning gentle in opposition to serving God in any previous method we predict is likely to be proper. In Romans 4:4-5 – you possibly can't get far more fundamental than this – Paul describes how the Christian life begins. Are we justified and made proper with God by working for God—incomes wages—or by trusting Him to work for us in our utter helplessness? Here’s a quote: “To him who works, his wages should not counted as a present, however as a due. And to him that worketh not, however believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his religion is counted unto righteousness.” Originally of our Christian life, we weren’t reconciled to God by serving him for the wages of salvation. He labored for us, he served us, not us to him.He did the humanly inconceivable on the cross.
So with all these pink warning lights flashing in entrance of our faces, we want to not serve God on this method—as if we will earn a wage, as if we will meet his wants, as if we will put him in debt or make him our beneficiary. .
Here’s what we’ve to ask. Nicely, how are we to serve him? You retain telling us all of the flawed methods. What’s the proper service?
Each step a present of grace
Maybe the deepest and clearest reply is 1 Peter 4:11. This was prayed over me each time I preached in Bethlehem. For years and years that was our verse simply earlier than we went as much as preach, “Whoever serves, as he who serves with the facility that God offers—that in all issues God could also be glorified by way of Jesus Christ.” To him belong glory and dominion endlessly and ever.”
So any effort made to serve God is an effort from God. That is maybe an important sentence. Let me say it once more: Each effort made to serve God, proper service to God, is an effort from God. This have to be completely engraved in our souls. In any other case, we’ll all the time consider ourselves as bringing issues to God that he doesn't have, as if we will meet his wants when he doesn't have any. He isn’t served as if he wants something.
An idea of ministry that dishonors God and doesn’t assist individuals—as a result of it attracts them away from God's all-giving grace towards our personal supposed self-produced ethical endeavor—serving with out counting on Him to serve us in our ministry. All service that pleases God is finished in a second of reliance on God's energy to allow the service. Or, to place it one other method, the one service to God that pleases God is finished by the joyful acceptance of his undeserved service to us and in us. We see this in 1 Corinthians 15:10: “By the grace of God I’m what I’m, and his grace towards me was not in useless. Quite the opposite, I labored”—one may say “served”—“more durable than any of them, although it was not I, however the grace of God that was with me.
“All service pleasing to God takes place within the second of counting on God's enabling energy to serve.”
So sure, we’re working; sure, we serve. We’ve a grasp; we pay attention However each child step we absorb obedience to our Grasp is a present of grace from him. Due to this fact, we must always by no means consider our service to God as a method of repaying him for his goodness to us, as a result of each step we absorb that so-called compensation is one other present from God and it leads us deeper into debt to the grace that could be a superb place with no end in sight. We are going to by no means be indebted to God's grace. All through eternity, with every act of joyful obedience, we’ll go deeper and happier into debt to the reward of the glory of his grace.
Life underneath the waterfall
Right here is one final image of this particular sort of service to God. Jesus stated: “Nobody can serve two masters, for both he’ll hate the one and love the opposite, or he shall be dedicated to the one and despise the opposite. You can not serve God and cash” (Matthew 6:24). So the query is: How do you serve cash? That will be a clue. Serving cash doesn’t imply doing issues to fulfill the necessity for cash. You serve cash by calculating all of your plans, your efforts, to learn from what cash guarantees you. You rely your entire life to learn from what cash guarantees you. Your life revolves round making an attempt to get essentially the most out of your cash.
This additionally means serving God. You serve God by calculating all of your plans and all of your efforts to learn from all that God guarantees you. Your life revolves round making an attempt to get underneath the waterfall of God's biggest blessing and place your self to be of the best profit that God may give you—particularly, to himself.
So, I conclude, sure, God commissions us into his service, which suggests he calls us to take part within the achievement of his functions, not the achievement of his wants. And he fulfills his functions exactly by giving grace to do our work, as a result of the giver receives the glory; the servant will get pleasure. That is God's goal for his world: his glory and the enjoyment of his individuals in it.