THREE ESSENTIALS TO CHRISTIAN SERVICE
Today, we are going to talk about Christian service.
One of the things that God require of us is to serve Him.
The command of Jesus is very clear: "Your attitude must be like my own, for I, he Messiah, did not come to be served, but to serve and to give my life." (Matthew 20:28 LB).
We are not to be served, but to serve.
We are to serve God and we are to serve others.
But in serving, there are a lot of misconceptions among Christians.
Many of us think that Christian service is only for those who have a lot of spare time in their schedule.
"Someday, I will try to serve God if I am not that busy."
"Probably when I retire, then I can serve God fully."
But if you are not able to serve now you might have difficulty serving then.
Serving therefore should be done as soon as possible.
You need not wait for your retirement to come before you can serve God.
Another misconception is that Christian service is only for the spiritually mature such as the pastors and leaders.
"I am still very young in the faith, I don't now how to serve God."
Again, that is a wrong thinking.
You can serve the Lord even though you are a new Christian.
How? By telling other people about Christ.
Tell them how good God is in your life.
Win them for Christ.
Be a good witness.
That is part of your service.
And if you are a growing in Christ, you should serve more.
Maturity is for ministry.
We grow up in order that we could give out.
It is good to learn more and more spiritual truths each time we meet here.
But it is not enough.
We have to act on what we have learned and claim to believe.
Impression without expression causes depression.
Study without Christian service will always lead to spiritual stagnation.
And so, let us learn more so that we could serve more.
Remember the old comparison between the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee?
Here is the Map of Israel where the Dead sea and the Sea of Galilee are located.
The Sea of Galilee is a beautiful lake 13 miles long and 7 miles wide filled with fish and surrounded by lush vegetation.
It is Israel's largest freshwater reservoir.
It is also the country's largest and most important source of drinking water.
It was the place where Jesus calls four fishermen to follow him to make them fishers of men.
The Dead Sea is 50 miles long and 11 miles wide but the shoreline is 1,500 feet below sea level.
Seven million tons of water evaporate from the Dead Sea everyday.
The salt content of the Dead Sea ranges from 25-35% making it ten times saltier than the oceans of the world.
There is no sea weeds or plants of any kind in and around the water.
There are no fish or creatures swimming or living in or around the water.
As a matter of fact, all you could see is white crystal of salt covering everything around the water.
A fish can accidentally swim into the waters from one of the several freshwater streams that feed the Dead Sea.
However, it is killed instantly and the body is coated with a preserving layer of salt crystal and tossed onto shore by the wind and waves.
It is the earth's lowest elevation on land. (423 meters below sea level.)
Because of the high salt concentration, people can easily float in the Dead Sea.
Here is the similarity between the two.
Both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are fed by the Jordan River.
If that is the case, why is it that the Sea of Galilee is beautiful and alive while the Dead Sea is barren and lifeless?
The answer.
The Sea of Galilee has an outlet.
The Dead Sea does not have an outlet.
Water flows through the Sea of Galilee.
Water flows into the Dead Sea but not out.
In the same manner, if you do not serve the Lord, you have no outlet and you will become like the Dead Sea.
If you do not serve the Lord, your life will become stagnant.
There is no flowing or running water.
Your Christian life becomes dormant, stationary, lifeless, static and idle.
But if you always serve the Lord, your life will be like that of the Sea of Galilee, fresh green vegetation always.
Always blooming, always budding, always flourishing.
Life is like that when you are in God's service.
Life is beautiful when you are in the center of God's will.
Christian service therefore should be the heart of our Christian faith.
Serving God should always be the main priority of every one of us.
It should always be our first concern, our primary preference.
Serving people should be the outflow of our godly living.
It should be the result of our spiritual growth.
We should therefore find time to serve God.
Mother Teresa once said, “Holy living consists in doing God’s work with a smile.”
What we need therefore is not another Bible study.
We already known far more.
Whenever we have our Sunday School, I always thank God for all of us.
I am so proud of your spiritual insights, your spiritual wisdom in the Scriptures.
You are all growing in the Lord.
Keep on with it.
But we need to put these truths into practice.
What we need are serving experiences when we can exercise our spiritual muscles.
What we need are people who go out of their way and serve others.
Because the truth is, we are only interested in people serving us.
We say, "I am looking for a church that meets my needs and blesses me."
"I am not looking for a place to serve and be a blessing."
And so, we expect others to serve us, not vice versa.
Brothers and sisters, it is time to change our outlook on what a real church is all about.
It is time to focus our lives on living a life of service.
The mature follower of Jesus stops asking, "Who is going to meet my needs?"
No. The mature follower of Jesus should start asking, "Whose needs can I meet today?"
"Whose hearts need encouragement? Whose hearts are downhearted?"
"I want to fill up that need. I want to minister to people."
That is why today, we will look at the essential components to Christian service.
We will look at the GOAL of service, the POWER for service and the RESULTS of serving God.
The goal is that we will have a greater understanding of what Christian service is all about.
THREE ESSENTIALS TO CHRISTIAN SERVICE:
1. THE GOAL OF SERVICE IS GLORIFYING GOD.
Genesis 35:1 "Then God said to Jacob, "Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau."
This verse tells us that God wanted him to go back to Bethel so that he could settle there.
Once he is there, the Lord commanded him to build an altar to the Lord.
Actually, three times, these words: "build an altar to God" is used in the chapter.
Genesis 35:1, 3, 7 "3 Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone. ...7 There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother."
The first mention of "build an altar" is the command of the Lord to Jacob.
This is a call to action, a call for something that has to be done, a call for an activity, a plan and a process.
God is also calling us to action.
The call to service therefore is a call of action.
Something has to be done with our lives.
We must serve others.
The second mention of "build an altar" is the response of Jacob.
It is as if he is saying, "yes, Lord, I will do that.
I will make it a goal in my life.
I will make it my primary purpose in life."
God's command becomes his goal in life.
That is what obedience is all about.
Serving others should be our goal in life.
The third time it was mentioned was when Jacob had already accomplished building the altar.
The goal has been fulfilled, done, accomplished and consummated.
The Lord commanded, he obeyed and it was done.
He gave glory to God.
I hope and pray that this will characterize all our lives in the Christian service.
You see, every service we perform in this earth should have a goal.
It is not gain to popularity.
It is not to acquire people's attention.
It is not to gather a following of friends.
It is not to receive fame and prominence.
It is not to boost your own ego and reputation.
It is none of those things.
Service to God and to other people should only be done for one purpose: To glorify God.
We must exalt Him through service.
We must praise Him through our ministry.
We must magnify Him through our good works.
We must celebrate His goodness through service.
That is what it means to build an altar for God.
The goal of service is to glorify God.
Here are some Scriptures for us to think about:
The goal of Christian service is to praise God. 2 Corinthians 9:13 (NIV) "Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else."
The goal of Christian service is spiritual maturity. Ephesians 4:11-13 (NIV) "11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ."
The goal of Christian service is to be an approved worker. 2 Timothy 2:15 (NIV)"15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth."
2. THE POWER OF SERVICE IS COMMITMENT - JACOB GOT RID OF THE FOREIGN GODS (vs. 2)
Genesis 35:2 (NIV) "2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes."
If you want to serve God, you need the power to keep on going for a long long time.
You need the strength, the might and the force to serve God in spite of the difficulties ahead
You see, there are a lot of Christians who started serving the Lord but somehow along the way, they give up and lost their enthusiasm.
They grow cold in their service, they lost their interest, they lost their energy and power for service.
Why? What went wrong?
There was no power in their service.
There was no real commitment.
They have other things in their minds.
They have a lot of distractions.
They were interrupted.
They were disturbed.
Their attention was drawn away.
Hence, they were not able to give their best to God.
They were not able to give their full potential to God.
They were not able to give their full faculty to service.
That is why God told Jacob: "get rid of all the foreign gods in your life."
God was saying, "there are many things that distract your wholehearted service, get rid of all these."
Take them off.
Clear them away.
Eliminate them.
Delete them.
God wants us to grow in our commitment to God.
Commitment is the state or quality of being fully dedicated to a cause or activity.
It is your obligation or assurance that you will fulfill your goal.
When you have commitment, you are fully devoted to serve God.
You are faithful and zealous to do His will.
That means you make yourself available.
That means you pay attention to his promptings.
That means, when you see the need, you act and seize the moment.
That is what it means to serve God with the power of commitment.
Do you know that every time you serve God, you are creating a legacy of service to future generations?
That means you are starting a tradition of service that others can follow.
And so, our service must always be one of dedication, commitment and faithfulness to God.
But there are Christians who serve the Lord with a lot of complaints and grumbling.
There are Christians who serve the Lord with criticism and grievance.
They serve God with annoyance and trouble.
They serve God with moaning and rumbling.
They serve God with accusations and criticism.
They serve God with disagreement and discontent.
Brothers and sisters, that should not be the case among you while serving God.
That is not the kind of legacy that you should leave behind.
When you serve God in any ministry, there should be a personal acceptance of the work God has given to you.
There must be an acknowledgment that God has placed you there.
There must be a spirit of cooperation with other co-workers.
There must be a recognition of other gifts and talents that you don't have.
There must be an admission that we need each other and we are better of together.
That is what it means to serve God.
Consider these verses of Scriptures:
Serve God faithfully. 1 Samuel 12:24 (NIV) " But be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.
Serve God heartily. Colossians 3:23-24 (NIV) " Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving."
Serve God with a willing mind. 1 Chronicles 28:9 (NIV) "“And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever."
Serve the Lord with spiritual fervor. Romans 12:11 (NIV) "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord."
3. THE RESULT OF SERVICE IS PERSONAL HOLINESS. JACOB PURIFIED HIMSELF (vs. 2)
The third thing that we can learn from this chapter of Genesis is the result of true Christian service.
Genesis 35:2 (NIV) "2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes."
When you serve God, you get rid of all foreign gods and you grow in your commitment.
When you serve God, you become like Him and you live in spiritual holiness.
God told Jacob: "purify yourself and change your clothes."
The word: "purify" means to make pure, to be free from anything that debases, anything that contaminates.
Surely, it is very difficult to serve God if we are contaminated with sin.
It is hard to serve God if our minds are polluted by sin.
It is very challenging to serve God if our thoughts are corrupted by iniquities.
It is very painful to serve God if our hands are tarnished with immorality.
Serving God therefore requires "purifying yourselves and changing your clothes."
As we grow in our service, we should mature in holiness.
As we advance in our ministry, we should cultivate our humility.
As we build God's altar, we should thrive in spiritual purity.
As we expand our territory, we should develop our faith.
As we multiply our giftedness, we should flourish in our Christian character.
As we become more involved with other people, we should become more like Christ.
My brothers and sisters, the result of Christian service is personal holiness.
It is never the intention of Christian ministry for you to get burned out.
It is never the aim of service for you to get depressed.
It is never the goal for you to be involved in relational conflict.
It is never the design of ministry for you to be fully exhausted physically.
It is never the objective of Christ for you to be dried up spiritually.
No.
Christian Ministry that is called by God should be joyful, enjoyable, upbeat, productive, beneficial and fruitful both to you and to others.
But Christian ministry that is pressured by men are barren, fruitless, hurting, idle, useless and worthless.
That is why, when you look at the result of ministry, you will find out whether it is from God or from men.
Here are some Scriptures for us to think about:
We are called for holiness. 1 Thess. 4:7 (NIV) "7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life."
We are vessels useful to the master. 2 Timothy 2:21 (NIV)"21 Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.''
We must establish our hearts for holiness. 1 Thess. 3:13 (NIV) "13 May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones."
May you grow in your service to God.
