It’s simple….
We cannot serve everyone. We are not God, but as God’s hands and feet, when we serve those whom God has given us… it’s simple.
Going deeper…
We cannot serve service. Did you know that sometimes we worship service? The false idols of Asherah, Molech, Chemosh in the days of Israel were at the root of this type of worship. It explains why they ended up being the demise of the wisest man that ever lived: Solomon. We do not vocalize, but we ask ourselves the question: “When we’re serving what wrong could we possibly be doing?”
Notice… Asherah represented “love and war” and one of the common practices or acts of worship to the god of Molech included the sacrificing of children at the alter, and the worship of Chemosh looked the same. They both took what appeared to be worship too far… Be aware of the gods of “taking it too far”! They can look like of acts of service. And while there’s nothing wrong with acts of service in and of itself, what it could lead to is demise. Do not be deceived. We like to cover up this worship of false gods, or sin, under the auspice of “service,” but we will get out of line and found out every time.
So what do we do?!
One might ask the question, what shall we do then? And the answer is yes, we should serve while carefully exercising prioritized intention. Are we sacrificing our families (our children) and our moral or sexual purity (marriages) in order to “serve” others?
If we are serving in reaction to a dictate, we could be in danger of falling into false worship. What this means is if we are doing it because we feel we are “supposed to,” we’re probably going to be given to all kinds of things that lead to undesirable sacrifice and sensuality. It’s considered a way out. Because, if we’re honest, our flesh is probably going to be looking for something in return. But if we are doing it out of desire, the desire of our hearts, not by because of external demands we could be onto something useful, very useful.
Sometimes we get off course…
The circumcision seal of righteousness was made by one man for all. According to the Bible, it all started with Abraham (Romans 4:11), and then it was credited future generations. Circumcision by one man making righteousness possible for all future generations… powerful. Christ, the Son of Man, similarly took on the sins of all and died and rose again for God’s plan of salvation to abound… one man for all.
Since we are neither permitted or required to be Abraham or Jesus in these measures (matters of faith and redemption), we need to consider what our role truly is in other matters as well… especially in the matter of service. Are we trying to serve every Tom, Dick, and Jane? We simply cannot be everything to everyone. So what is OUR measure and matter of service?
True service is inspired!
We might not instantly oblige to serve in and of our own flesh without knowing that there will be at least some titillating reward, but service takes on a life of its own. Even after it’s birthed from true desire, it is still in danger of becoming rote. What our role is becomes to not become a “cog” or keep oneself from “cog-dom” we could say.
In “cogdom” we could truly start to believe that it’s the system that is at work instead of our God. The system becomes like the god Molech, the ruler of shameful sacrifice. This system of service may have come to require a level of sacrifice that really is shameful – like forgetting about the needs of our family (sacrificing our children at the alter).
If we have to neglect our families in order to serve, it’s worth asking: “Is what I’m doing beyond God’s intent for service?”. The danger in not answering this question is that we could start saying “By our own hands…” instead of “By the LORD’s hands” this thing has been accomplished. This attitude totally discounts all of the efforts and lonely nights our family had to endure in our pursuit for… whatever!(1 Tim 5:8)
Like the false god Chemosh, identified as a subduer or destroyer or ‘fish God’, who leads with Art, Science, and writing, the statement “by our own hands” says: “look at how creative we are.” Or service can turn into self glorification leading the way with our talents instead of by God’s grace. Or by Ashtoreth, also referred to as the goddess of the groves, look how ‘mysterious’ we are… looking to be worshiped even in our service!
Service as Sacred:
Service should be held as sacred. Perhaps only allowed by “members” or the like to participate. Think of service as faith… If everyone is doing it, it doesn’t take an act of faith to get involved. All it takes is marketing. Most service is rooted in selfishness, of which we ALL are part of! Is this not “shameful sacrifice”? Arent we sacrificing the ones being served in order to fulfill our own need for completion, fulfillment as well?
When we treat service as a sacred role we know not to approach it with the platform of our own agenda, and that not everyone will benefit from what we have to offer.
Results of evergreen inspired service:
The major benefits of truly evergreen inspired service are these:
- Service is the antidote for judgement.: Judgement can run rampant in the Christian community. None of us are exempt, we’re human. When we serve, it does not allow us to judge a situation. In fact it causes us to pray for that particular person or situation because we are directly affected by the outcome. God’s intent.
- Serving the Lord Jesus is to build the temple: This is one of the things required of His saints, to rebuild the temple. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. When we “rebuild the temple” we are making it possible for the Holy Spirit to make a home within us and hence, receive His prophetic instruction, consider His ways, and restore His presence.
- Service allows us to fulfill the mandate of honoring God with our first fruits and be cheerful about it. It’s just about doing it. He has made a way for every need to be met. We truly can joyfully be a part of the process. Once we are His we don’t have to be afraid of our intentions, He will purify and set our desires to line up with His.
- Service will not be mediocre. Being fair is not being right all the time, being fair is sometimes just that: fair or mediocre!
Honor in Service:
See the story of Solomon. He despised a man named Hiram who helped him work on the temple (the actual building) by giving him the final gift of “useless” land (Cabul) in exchange for his years of service and supplies.
Hiram had worked for Solomon until temple was completed. Solomon started out the relationship good. He provided food for Hiram and his household, as agreed, but by the end of their dealings (in the beginning there was peace between them-1 Kings 5:12), there was no peace.
Hiram had sent to Solomon, towards the building of the temple: cedar, cypress, timber, and also… GOLD… which wasn’t even in the initial contract (see 1 Kings 5). It says by the end (1 Kings 9:14) Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents of gold. Today’s math equals out to be $143,424,000. It was the same amount that Queen of Sheba gave to him. Did Hiram honor Solomon? More than enough. Did Solomon honor Hiram? Initially… but in the end, no.
The Foundation of Service:
He paid it all! One person can set the tone for all generations. I leave you with Romans 5:15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!.
Other:
Associated blog post: “Strictly Faith“.
Hint: It is not service… 🙂
