F4S: If your gift is serving others, serve them well. —Romans 12:7

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

If your gift is serving others, serve them well. —Romans 12:7

What to know before you go serve? Him.. and what to do?

Know Jesus. He would spend time with the Father, and then He'd practically serve people.

When ya read the Bible on through (I mean God’s love letter to the believing servant..) ask these three questions...

So many riots still.  Hey, serving and helping people.. instead of harming and looting from them.. that’s great. 

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What does it mean that God is great?

Jesus (God the Son) came here and served people, and sacrificed for us. 

Among many other places, Psalm 145:3 declares, “Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.” Dozens of verses describe God as “great” and give as evidence His wondrous works (e.g., Psalm 86:10; 96:4; 135:5; Job 5:9; 9:10; 1 Chronicles 16:24). In describing a person, the word great means “preeminent, above the norm, or distinguished.” It also implies superior character or quality, such as saying that Abraham Lincoln was “a great man.” So, when the Bible describes God as “great,” it sets the Lord apart from human beings we may consider “great” and calls attention to His worthiness to be worshiped and adored (2 Kings 17:36; Psalm 5:7).

The word great is used in many English versions of the Bible to capture the meaning of the Greek and Hebrew words describing God’s superior character qualities. First John 3:1 says, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (emphasis added). Romans 9:22 speaks of God’s “great patience.” Lamentations 3:22–23 praises the Lord for His great love and His great faithfulness.

Ephesians 1:19 indicates that God’s might is unsurpassed—it is an “incomparably great power.” Titus 2:13 calls Jesus “our great God and Savior,” meaning that the Lord is of the highest rank, eminent in His authority. Hebrews 10:21 says that Jesus is “a great priest over the house of God,” signifying that Christ surpasses all other priests throughout history in nature, in power, and in ability. When Jesus cast a demon out of a boy, the crowd was “amazed at the greatness of God” (Luke 9:43).

All through the Bible, we see evidence that God is great, from the creation of the world, to the parting of the Red Sea, to the miracles of Christ, to the final judgment. Our response to God’s greatness is to humbly worship and adore Him: “Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness” (Psalm 150:2).

God is so great that He cannot be compared with anything or anyone else (Psalm 71:19). Since He created everything in existence, He is far superior to those creations. He is bigger, in the sense that He cannot be confined by time or space. He is wiser, using foolish things to confound those who think themselves wise (Isaiah 40:13; 1 Corinthians 1:27). He is infinite, while all created things are finite (Psalm 90:2). God, in fact, defines greatness, and all other uses of the word are mere echoes of that greatness.

Serving Others > Self-Serving

“If your gift is serving others, serve them well.” —Romans 12:7

Do you like serving people? Hey, whatever you’re doing for a living or perhaps volunteering in, whether you’re working at a sushi or burger restaurant, or serving in local church, or say working in healthcare, do this.. serve well. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing with excellence. 

Here’s the mark of a human that God has called to serve.. they recognize a real need to be met, or a hurt to be healed (sure, God can heal when we pray for people), and then they prayerfully make themselves available. At God’s leading, they wisely jump in and do something about it.

Some people have the gift of complaining instead of the gift of giving. Some people live on the take, rather than on the give. Some people give when the Spirit leads, even if they don’t have “the gift of giving.” 

Some people seem so content with finding fault rather that with serving others—they grade preachers, and quickly voice all the things the church is doing wrong in their estimation.

But people with the gift of serving see a need and then practically meet that need because they want to help people out. They want to help people see Jesus who served sinners as He really is.. and then love Him more. 

Are you other’s oriented, or just self orientated? Giving what ya can, serving where you can.. has God given you this spiritual gift? 

What a wonderful gift this is. So, if you’re checking on your elderly neighbors, or friends.. and praying for them, that is super great, and if you’re out picking up the groceries for them or say mowing their lawn, that is great too. Because whatever you’re doing to serve the Lord.. to serve people.. it really matters. Directed service makes an impact for the glory of Christ. 

The Bible says, “Do not neglect the spiritual gift you received” (1 Timothy 4:14 NLT). Or, as The Message puts it, “Keep that dusted off and in use.”

Be faithful in the little things, and God will open up greater opportunities for you. Because, as Warren Wiersbe has said, “You can never be too small for God to use, only too big.”

Of course people should really want to, and do need to serve God first. I mean from the heart. That’s so normal and obvious in Scripture (see Luke 4:8). Why we should want to serve God is a more difficult question. Every Christian asked might have a different reason for serving God; different people are motivated by different things. However, the Bible does make clear that, when a person is in a real relationship with God, he will serve God. We should want to serve God because we know Him; an inherent part of knowing Him is a desire to serve Him.

It’s always been God’s intention to make us like His Son, Jesus (Romans 8:29). When we look at Jesus’ life, there’s no denying that He was a servant. Jesus’ entire life was centered on serving God—by teaching, healing, and proclaiming the Kingdom (Matthew 4:23). He came not “to be served but to serve” (Matthew 20:28). Then, on the night of His arrest, Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, leaving them with a final teaching to serve one another: “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (see John 13:12–17). So, if Jesus is all about serving, and God wants to make us like Him, then it’s pretty obvious that we should be all about serving as well.

Directed service, yes following Jesus as you serve people is great. None of us want to get too busy working (like some idolatrous workaholic) that we don’t take time to be alone with Christ sitting at his feet, but we want to serve people as well. 

Genuine service cannot be separated from love. We can go through the motions of serving God, but if our hearts are not in it we’re missing the point. First Corinthians 13 makes it clear that, unless our service is rooted in love, it’s meaningless. Serving God out of a sense of obligation or duty, apart from love for God, is not what He desires. Rather, serving God should be our natural, love-filled response to Him who loved us first (see 1 John 4:9–11).

The apostle Paul is a great example of how having a relationship with God through Christ results in a life of service. Prior to his conversion, Paul persecuted and killed believers, thinking he was serving God. But after he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, he immediately devoted the rest of his life to truly serving God by spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ (see Acts 9:20). Paul describes this transformation in 1 Timothy 1:12–14: “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” Once Paul became aware of the love and grace that God had given him, his response was to serve God.

The Bible offers several motivations for our service. We want to serve God because “we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken” (Hebrews 12:28), because our service supplies “the needs of the Lord’s people” (2 Corinthians 9:12), because our service proves our faith and causes others to praise God (2 Corinthians 9:13), and because God sees and rewards our labor of love (Hebrews 6:10). Each of these is a good reason to serve God.

We can give away only what we’ve first received. The reason we can love and serve God is that He first loved and served us through Jesus Christ. The more we are aware of and experience God’s love in our own lives, the more prone we are to respond in love by serving Him. If you want to want to serve God, the key is to get to know Him! Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal more of God to you (John 16:13). When we truly know God, who is love (1 John 4:8), our natural response is a desire to love and serve Him in return. Fish4souls.org