God uniquely shapes you, for a purpose, to serve Him. 1 Peter 4:10, “Each of us should use whatever gift he’s received to serve others.” God gave you gifts and talents and abilities and background and experiences and all these things for the benefit, to be used by serving others. Our fourth purpose in life is to serve God by serving others Ministry is a misunderstood word. Not every believer is a pastor, but every believer is a minister; meaning using my shape; talents, abilities, background, and experiences to help somebody else. In the Bible “service” and “ministry” are the same word. All are called to ministry. If you are called to salvation, you are called to serve You were created to be like Christ, and do what He did while on earth? He SERVED. Matthew 20:28, “Jesus said, ‘Your attitude must be like My own, for I did not come to be served, but to serve’.”
What does God want you to do? Look at your spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experiences. Your attitude, your servant heart, determines your maturity. What does it take to be used and to learn to serve like Jesus? Serving like Jesus means being available. One day Jesus was walking down to go to Jericho and some blind men start yelling at him. Matt. 20:30-32: “Two blind men shouted ‘Lord, have mercy on us! Jesus stopped and called them. ‘What do you want me to do for you?’.” Jesus stopped. Most of Jesus’ ministry and miracles were interruptions. He met the need because He allowed Himself to be interrupted.
John Wesley’s motto was this: Do all the good you can by all the means you can by all the ways you can in all the places you can and at all the times you can to all the people you can as long as you ever can.
Three common barriers keep us from being available.
The first barrier to being available is self-centeredness. The Bible says, “Forget yourself long enough to lend a helping hand.” (Phil. 2:4) A servant heart, like Jesus Christ, don’t mind being interrupted because your agenda is God’s agenda. Almost every miracle and acts of ministry Jesus did, were interruption.
A second barrier to being used by God is perfectionism. Real servants, do the best they can with what they have today. They don’t wait. We’re all a bunch of misfits, have weaknesses, faults, failures, and handicaps. But, God uses us all. There are not perfect people. God uses normal people. Don’t wait for perfect conditions. Go ahead and start serving while things are not settled down.
The third barrier to availability is materialism. Jesus said in Luke 16:13, “No servant can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and money.” The most important decision after become a believer: “Am I a kingdom-builder or a wealth-builder?” If your job is keeping you from having any kind of service, you need to make some kind of adjustment. Serving means being available.
Serving like Jesus also means being grateful.
In John 11 of Jesus serving in an incredible way. Jesus went to do ministry, to raise Lazarus from the dead. In this chapter we read “Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank You that You heard me. I know that You always hear Me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here.’” Jesus had an attitude of gratefulness in ministry. He was grateful in the tough times, when He was criticized, and when things were not easy in ministry. And we serve Him with gratefulness because of life through Jesus Christ. He saved us!
There are also barriers to achieving an attitude of gratefulness.
One of them is comparing and criticizing. Romans 14:4 says, “Who are you to criticize someone else’s servant? The Lord will determine whether His servant has been successful.” We’re all His servants. It’s a matter of His opinion, not my opinion or your opinion of one another. We’re on the same team, and have the same goal. We’re trying to make God look good to the world, and make a difference for Him. And He’s given us different abilities, different tasks.
The second barier is wrong motivations. In Matthew 6:1: “When you do good deeds, don’t try to show off. If you do, you won’t get a reward from your Father in heaven”. We need to be honest with ourselves about this. Serving to get others to like us, to be admired, or to achieve our own goals. If you want to learn to serve like Jesus, you have to learn to serve gratefully with a generous heart. You make yourself available. What does it take to be used and to learn to serve like Jesus?
Serving like Jesus also means being faithful.
It means you don’t give up, keep on going, not quitting in the middle of your assignment. The Bible tells us in I Corinthians 4:2 “The one thing required of servants is that they be faithful.”
How are we faithful, staying faithful in serving God over the long haul?
a) being grateful for all the past that God is forgiven in our lives
b) having faith in the future reward.
c) knowing that what we’re doing really MATTERS Real servants do every task with equal dedication because they know it all matters.
How will God use you? One day you will stand before God and He will ask, “What did you do with what I gave you, the talents, the abilities, the background, the experiences, the freedom, the education, the family experiences?” You may be thinking nobody’s watching you, and nobody’s noticing what you do, but God’s watching. Hebrews 6:10 says: “He will not forget how hard you’ve worked for Him and how you’ve shown your love to Him. By caring for other Christians”. God keeps His promise.
And one day we want God to say: “Well done good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things so; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness.” Is God going to be able to say “well done” to you? How is your schedule or the other priorities? The most important thing you’ll ever do with your life is serving God in ministry. It’s more important than your career, hobbies, or anything else. You were put here on earth to practice serving.
Now let’s commit this purpose of serving to Prayer!
Father I realize that I was shaped to serve You by serving others. Forgive me for the times I’ve put a “do not disturb” sign on my heart. Help me to see the interruptions as opportunities to serve. Help me to make time for what matters most. You’ve been so good to me. I want to give something back. I want to serve You freely and gratefully and faithfully, and I want to learn and grow in this ministry area so one day I can hear You say “Well done, good and faithful servant”. In Your name I pray, Amen.