Serving God With Love!

2 Corinthians 5:14

Many people all over the world are serving God.
Some are giving of their money, others are giving of their time and talent.
Some are teaching a class, and others are serving as ushers.
Some are inviting her friends and neighbors to visit their church.
Others are serving on committees.

Why are they doing all these things?
What is their motive?
What is an adequate reason for serving God?
Let us look at some of the various motives which lead people who work for God.

One is the path of least resistance.
1 Kings 18:21

There are people who have just drifted into our churches.
They have been raised in a family where everyone belonged to the church.
It was taken for granted that as they approached their teen years that they would become members,
and they have dutifully done so.
If they are questioned about their faith, they will simply answer that they are Baptists, Methodists,
Catholics… simply because their parents were church members.
In other words they have drifted into the church without ever having met God face to face
in a personal experience.
They serve because it is the thing to do.

Religion to people like this is a matter of habit.
Church-going was a habit as a child and the custom still continues because habits are
difficult to break.
These are the people and for one reason or other miss a few Sundays and then have no desire
to return to church services.
The habit is broken.
These people are those who must be visited frequently by the pastor and encouraged
by the visitation committee to return.

Their motive for service must be applied from without.
They are like a trailer which must be pulled by a car because there is no self-locomotion.
They are like the child who must be made to study.
There is no love for learning.

Others serve for reward.
Job 1: 1-12

Satan accused Job of serving God because of what he was getting from God.
Job had discovered that it paid to serve God.
He had become the most wealthy man of the East.
A hedge had been put about him as God protected him and his house from all evil.

Satan expressed his opinion that if all God's blessings were taken from Job,
he would curse God to His face.
God was determined to prove that the situation was not from such a motive
so that he permitted Satan to remove Job's wealth, children, and health.
Job stood the test and has become an example for all of us in difficult times.

The faith of many Christians could not stand such a test.
They are serving God because of the reward they expect to get.
Every thinking person wants to go to heaven.
What a wonderful place it will be!
But is that reason enough for a person to serve God?

The reward of those who have given themselves to Christ is eternal life,
but is this the reward and motive for service?
Could a person call that losing his life?
If one loses his life just so he can gain a reward, has he ever really lost it?
(See Matthew 16:25.)

The person who follows Christ receives ample reward in this life.
The Christian's life is the happiest of any person on earth.
But do we serve Christ just so we can be happy?
That may be part of the reason, but in itself that is only a small indication
of a true knowledge of the Christian experience.
The person who serves God only for the reward is in a position similar to that
of a girl who marries a man only because of the wealth and good live that he can give her.

If we serve God only for reward and when we are denied the material blessings of life
we may lose our faith in Him and our loyalty to Him.
This is the reason why so many have come to doubt the goodness or the reality of God.

We need the kind of faith that the three Hebrew children had when they were faced
with the alternative of renouncing God or to be cast into the fiery furnace,
replied with unwavering conviction: " If it be so, our God whom we serve is able
to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace… But if known unto thee, O king,
that we will not serve thy gods."
(Daniel 3:17-18)

Then there are those who serve from fear.
Numbers 22-25; 31: 8-16

Balaam is an example of a man who served God because of fear of Him.
When the group from Moab came to buy his curses against Israel, Balaam learned
that God intended to bless the Israelites, Balaam gave his reply to the Moabites:
" The Lord refuseth to get me leave to go with you." (Numbers 22: 13)

At first glance, this reply seems that of a faithful prophet, but a more careful reading
provides the truth.
In effect he was saying, " I want them go; I would like to go, but I dare not go.
God will not let me go."

Such an attitude toward God usually results in an effort to escape punishment
and still follow one's real desires.
Balaam finally became the Judas of the Old Testament, slain by the Israelites themselves
for his treachery.
So the person who serves God from fear alone will think that he has escaped the judgments of the Lord only to discover that what he fears most is upon him.

If a person's serves God simply from fear he denies himself the greatest privilege
of the Christian life which is peace of mind and heart.
To long for the pleasures of the world but to avoid them for fear of punishment from God
will bring constant conflicts in that person's soul.

It is far better to learn to love to do the will of God and find that the delight
in the pleasures that He provides.
And then, we are at peace with God, our fellow men, and within ourselves.

To serve God from fear is to misunderstand the whole being and purpose of God.
If God is our Father, He is most concerned with what brings happiness to His children.
God has no pleasure in seeing His beloved children shrink in fear from His helping hand.
Rather, God desires for us to place our hands trustingly in His, and to follow Him
wherever He leads, knowing not only that the way of the cross leaves home,
but also that along that way His rod and His staff will protect us.

Some serve seeking the approval of others.
Matthew 6: 1-5

The heart of Jesus went out to those caught in the tangled net of their sin,
knowing their need of God, but unable to find their way to Him.
But Jesus had no word of sympathy for the hypocrites (those whom pretended to know God),
but who were actually striving only to be seen of men.
Jesus said: " They have their reward." (Matthew 6: 2)
What they really desire is the approval of others.
So, they may receive this, but they will not receive acknowledgment from God.

The charge of hypocrisy is often laid on some of the leaders in our churches,
but seldom is that true.
Our longing for approval has taken on more refined ways of expression.
We really desire to do the will of God but the approval of the world also means much to us.
It is easier to work for God where everyone can see us than in a place where
we are unappreciated and forgotten.
It is so much easier to be the teacher of a Bible school class, and the center
of the pupils' attention, than one whom quietly visits the forsaken and forgotten
with words of cheer and comfort.

There are some people that believe that to be a respectable citizen a person
must belong to some church.
How he lives is another question, but if he does not belong to a church,
he is the immediate target of the preacher's sermons and visits,
and the principal name on every prayer list.
Faced with such a predicament more people than we realize simply throw up their hands
and join the church to avoid the constant unwanted attention.
The attitude is " Might as well get it over with."
With no real experience of salvation through Christ he or she gives the right answers
to the preacher's questions, is baptized, and continues to be the same sort of person
that he or she was before.
But in the words of Jesus, " The last state of that man is worse than the first." (Matthew 12: 45)

Serving in love!
2 Corinthians 5: 14a

In his letter to the church at Corinth the apostle Paul gives the motive that should be
in every Christian's heart.
" The love of Christ grips us," he says.
The expression literally means " Holds us together," and is best read:
" grips us so as to compel us to action."
This love he speaks of is Christ's love for us.
When we think of what He has done for us, we are so gripped by it that we give our all to Him
in commitment and love.

This is the only adequate motive for Christian service.
We love Him because He first loved us.
So, we do not wait to be urged, and we do not strive to please others.
We will always seek the will of God, and without thought of reward, we will give ourselves
completely to the Saviour we love.

During World War II and army chaplain was assigned to a paratroop corps.
Every time the corps went to battle there was always a full quota of men;
yet very few ever came back alive, and those who did were usually maimed for life.

One day the minister asked the commander the secret of his success with his men.
He immediately replied, " When the men first come to me, and they are all volunteers,
I would tell them this, 'Men, it is not necessary that you be spared,
but it is necessary that you complete your mission.'"

That commander had caught the spirit of Christianity.
There is just one thing necessary for the Christian and that is to complete the mission
for which God has sent us into the world.
Forgetting self, we must give ourselves in love to serve God as He leads us each day.

Sermon by Dr. Harold L. White