Serving God
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The Bible teaches almost everywhere that human beings are to serve God, and when the Son of God comes into the world, we are to serve him.
In the Old Testament, Joshua says
15 But if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served, which were beyond the Euphrates River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
And then Paul celebrates the Thessalonian converts because:
9 For they themselves report about us as to the kind of reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God,
Over and over again, Paul calls himself and he calls Christians “servants” — literally, “slaves” — of Christ and of God.
1 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
6 not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.
Peter does the same:
1 Peter 2:16 and 2 Peter 1:1
1 Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:
16 Act as free people, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond-servants of God.
It is unmistakable.
The biblical way of speaking rightly about the relationship to God that we have is to call ourselves servants or slaves of God and of Christ.
Now, as soon as we say that, we must ask really pointedly what’s involved in serving God and what’s not involved in serving God.
Warning:
Warning:
If we start serving God as though we could earn wages from him, or as though we could meet his needs, or as though we could put him in our debt and make him our beneficiary - We practice great error in our service.
The bible makes this point abundantly clear:
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25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;
So yes, serve him, but not that way — not as though he needed your service.
“Serve God, but not by presuming to meet his need. He owns everything. He doesn’t need your supply.”
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12 “If I were hungry I would not tell you, For the world is Mine, and everything it contains.
15 Call upon Me on the day of trouble; I will rescue you, and you will honor Me.”
That was one of Spurgeon’s favorite verses.
Yes, serve God, but not by presuming to meet his need.
He owns everything.
He doesn’t need your supply.
We call on him in need, not the other way around.
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45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
He saves us; we don’t save him.
He meets our need; we don’t meet his need.
Reflection:
Reflection:
So, with all those red warning lights flashing in our face, we better not serve God that way — as though we could earn wages, as though we could meet his needs, as though we could put him in our debt or make him our beneficiary.
Here’s what we need to ask.
Well, how should we serve him?
You keep telling us all the bad ways.
What is right service?
What is right service?
Maybe the deepest and clearest answer is:
11 Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking actual words of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Every effort expended in the service of God is a God-given effort.
That may be the most important sentence.
Let me say it again:
Every effort expended in the service of God, the right service of God, is a God-given effort.
That’s what must absolutely sink into our souls.
Otherwise, we will always think of ourselves as bringing to God things that he doesn’t have, as though we could meet his needs, when he doesn’t have any.
He’s not served as though he needed anything.
Note:
This conception of service dishonors God and will not help people — because it points them away from God’s all-supplying grace toward our own supposed self-produced moral efforts — is serving without relying upon him to serve us in our serving.
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All God-pleasing service is done in the moment-by-moment reliance upon God’s service-enabling power.
Or to say it another way, the only service of God that pleases God is done through the glad acceptance of his undeserved service toward us and in us.
We see this in:
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
“All God-pleasing service is done in the moment-by-moment reliance upon God’s service-enabling power.”
So yes, we work; yes, we serve.
We have a master; we obey.
But every baby step we take in obedience to our Master is a gift of grace from him to us.
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Therefore, we should never think of our service to God as a way to repay him in gratitude for his goodness to us, because every step we take in that so-called payback is another gift from him, and it takes us deeper into debt to grace, which is a glorious place to be forever and ever and ever.
We will never not be debtors to God’s grace.
For all eternity, with every act of glad obedience, we will go deeper and happier into debt to the praise of the glory of his grace.
What “counts” as Service to God?
What “counts” as Service to God?
Preaching?
36 And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years and had lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage,
37 and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She did not leave the temple grounds, serving night and day with fasts and prayers.
38 And at that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak about Him to all those who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.