A Disciple Serves God and Other People
What is serving God?
Most of the time when people think about serving God they immediately think of a Preacher, Pastor or Missionary. Those are valid ways of serving God, but they are only a small part of the big picture. Romans 12 gives us a great picture of serving God and some great advice.
“We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us…..(Romans 12:6 NIV)”
The Bible teaches that each of us have different gifts that we can use to serve God. A gift can be almost anything. You may be gifted with a pleasant outgoing personality. So you might make an awesome greater for a church. Perhaps you are an organizer, an administrator, or better yet a nerd(I am). All those gifts can be used to serve God. You may be called to go on mission trips or to help support a mission trip. In service to God, everyone is different, but we each have a purpose.
Something you will notice when serving God, it almost always involves other people. We serve an awesome God. The God who has everything or could create anything that He wants. It is a very sobering thought that he really does not need anything. It is us that needs Him. He gives us the opportunity to honor and worship him through service. God gives us everything we have either directly or indirectly. So when we serve, we are giving back part of what He has given to us. We give of our time, energy and resources to honor and worship Him.
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God--this is your true and proper worship.” (Romans 12:1 NIV)
What do you give to the person who has everything?
Here’s the good news. God has given us an instruction manual on life and how to serve him. Going back to the sections on KNOW and GROW. We just need to read and study the Bible to find those instructions. Here are some quick thoughts on what God says about serving him.
Love God, Love People
“Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40 NIV)
Jesus makes a bold statement here and restates all of the Law and commandments in a simple statement. Love God and Love People. If you follow these two commands, you will be following all the other commands. Here is an interesting thought on Love. Your Love is one thing that God would never force because if he did it would be worthless. In the free will that God gave to us, we find our act of worship and service. We choose to love him and other people.
“But be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.” (1 Samuel 12:24 NIV).
It’s a heart thing
When you are a servant you do the things that the Master tell you to do. God wants our hearts. Which is what serving God is all about. We serve because we love. Jesus also tells us how to fulfill the two commands at the same time in (Matthew 25:31-46 NIV). To boil it all down to a short memorable sentence. We show our love for God by loving People.
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
By loving people and serving our Christian brothers and sisters we are Serving, honoring and worshiping God.
Where to serve?
The most correct answer is simple, Everywhere you go. Most people want something more specific than that. How about a quick list…
- Local Church
- Food Pantry
- Mission Field
- Outreach Ministries
- Your Work
- Your Home
The thought is that you as a disciple of Christ, act like it and serve in all the places that you are. You can start by volunteering and getting involved. In most of the places that were just named, find a leader and ask, “what can I help with?” Then do it, and put all that you have into it.
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” (Colossians 3:23-24 NIV)