Welcome back to the podcast. Today we have a trio of interesting emails to work through
the next three weeks. Pastor John, as I look ahead on the calendar of questions on what's
on the table to come, what does it mean to serve God? That's today. What does it mean
to serve God? Next week, as we serve God, what do we give Him? Are we giving Him anything
that He doesn't already have? Does He need us? That's APJ 1956. And then a week after
that, what does it mean to be spiritual? Spirituality, of course, is a squishy concept in the
world today. And we're going to work towards a definition in APJ 1960. Interesting trio
of topics, all at the foundations of what it means to be a successful Christian, living
out of the Christian life over the next three weeks. Some important questions ahead.
So today, what does it mean to serve God? The question is from a listener named Amy.
Pastor John, hello. I was discussing the phrase, serve the Lord with a fellow believer the
other day. And I was wondering if you could clarify something for us. All over scripture
we are told to serve the Lord. And Psalm 100 verse two, it says to serve the Lord with
gladness. Good, Ronomy 10 12 says, serve the Lord with all your heart and all your soul.
Joshua says, as for me in my house, we will serve the Lord. That's Joshua 24 15. And Paul
in Romans 12 11 also tells us to serve the Lord. But then in Mark 10 45, Jesus says, the
son of man came not to be served, but to serve Christians through around the phrase, serve
the Lord so often. But I'm not sure I know what that phrase means. Can you clarify this
for me? I think this is one of the most important questions. A Christian can ask about living
the Christian life in a way that glorifies God and does good to other people. It gets at the
utterly crucial issue of a right way of serving God that honors him and blesses people
in a wrong way of serving God that dishonors him and doesn't help people. This is not a marginal
issue. We're talking about what it means to be a Christian moment by moment in real life. So let's
make it crystal clear that Amy is right that 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.
Old Testament, as for me in my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24 15. And then Paul celebrates
the Thessalonian converts because, quote, you turned from idols to serve the living and true God.
So over and over again, Paul calls himself, he calls Christians servants or literally slaves
of Christ and of God. Romans 11, if he's in six six, Peter does the same. First, Peter 216. Second,
Peter 11. It is unmistakable one 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. That's right. She's
drawing attention to that and she should. 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. 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, red, biblical, light, start flashing very brightly. For example,
in John 15, 15, Jesus says to his disciples, no longer do I call you servants or slaves.
For the servant does not know what his master's doing, but I have called you friends
for all that I have heard from my father, I have made known to you. And yet, in verse 14, so the preceding verse,
he says, you are my friends, if you do what I command you. Whoa, what kind of a friend is that?
So the meaning of slave or servant is qualified. And the meaning of friend is qualified.
We can't just assume that what we mean by servant or friend is what Jesus means by servant or friend.
We have to listen or here's another bright flashing red light. Acts chapter 17, verse 15,
God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything for he himself gives to all men
life and breath and everything. So yes, serve him, but not that way, not that way, not as though he needed
your service or here's another red flashing light. Psalm 50, verse 12, God says, if I were hungry,
I would not tell you for the world and its fullness are mine. You call upon me in the day of trouble.
I'll deliver you and you will glorify me. That was that was one of surges in his favorite
verses. They called it Robinson Crusos text because that's that's what he quotes in the book.
Yes, serve God. Yes, 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. Here's another red flashing light.
She quoted it. Mark 1045, the son of man came not to be served. That's pretty clear warning,
not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. So he saves us. We don't save
him. He meets our need. We don't meet his need. Here's one more flashing red light of warning about
serving God in any old way that we think might be right. Romans 4.4 can't get much more basic
than this. Paul describes how the Christian life begins. Are we justified and put right with God
by working for God, earning a wage or by trusting him to work for us in our utter helplessness?
Here's the quote. To the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as he's due,
and to the one who does not work, but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted
as righteousness. So we did not get right with God in the beginning of our Christian life.
By serving him for a wage of salvation, he worked for us. He served us, not us him.
He did the humanly impossible on the cross. 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, make him our beneficiary. So here's here's what we need
to ask. Well, how should we serve him? You keep telling us what's all the bad ways? What
what is right service? And maybe the deepest and clearest answer is first Peter 411.
This gets preyed over me every time I preach it at Bethlehem for years and years. This was our
go-to verse just before walking upstairs to preach. Let him who serves serve in the strength that
God supplies, so that in everything God may get the glory through Jesus Christ to whom belongs
the dominion forever. So 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, which he doesn't have any. He's not served as though he needed
anything. The conception of service that 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. All God-pleasing service
is done in the moment by moment reliance upon God's service-enabling power, or to say it in other
way. The only service of God that pleases God is done through the glad acceptance of his undeserved
service toward us and in us. And we see this in 2 Corinthians 1510,
by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary,
I worked, or you could say, I served more zealously than any of them. And then he had,
though it was not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 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. Therefore, we should never think of our service to God as a way to repay
him in gratitude or 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 obedience, glad obedience to the end of eternity, and it has no end,
we will go deeper and happier into debt to the praise of the glory of his grace. So here's one last
picture of this peculiar kind of service to God. Jesus said, no one can serve two masters,
serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other or he'll be devoted to the one
and despise the other, you cannot serve God and money. So the question is, how do you serve money?
That would be a clue. Serving money doesn't mean doing things to meet money's need.
You serve money by calculating all your plans, your efforts to benefit from what money promises you.
Calculate your whole life to benefit from what money promises you. Your life revolves around trying
to put yourself in the position of the greatest benefit from money. That's also what it means to
serve God. You serve God by calculating all your plans and all your efforts to benefit from all
that God promises to be for you. Your life revolves around trying to put yourself under the waterfall
of God's greatest blessing, positioning yourself for the greatest benefit God has to give, namely,
himself. So I conclude, yes, God enlists us into His service, which means He calls us to have a part
in accomplishing His purposes, not meeting His needs, and He accomplishes His purposes precisely
by supplying the grace to our work, to do our work, because the giver gets the glory,
the servant gets the joy, and that's God's purpose for His world, His glory, and the joy of
His people in Him. Amen. Yeah, every effort expended in the service of God is a God-given effort.
We're not meeting His needs. Thank you, Pastor John. But we do give God things. We give Him,
we give Him things like praise. We give Him thanks. We give Him glory. We give Him power.
Give power to God. That's Psalm 6834. Give power to God. So how do we give God power? What do we
give to God if we meet none of His needs? It's an interesting question to follow this one,
and it comes up from a listener named Jeff next time. I'm your host, Tony Ranki. We'll pick it up
here on Monday. See you then.