An Act of Service
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, although 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 may not vocalize, but we might be asking ourselves the question: “When we’re serving, what wrong could we possibly be doing?”
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. Te worship of Chemosh looked the same. They both took what appeared to be taking worship too far… Be aware of the gods of “taking it too far”! They can look like of “acts of service”. While there’s nothing wrong with service in and of itself, acts of service only leads to demise. We cannot be deceived, by covering up this worship of false gods, or sin, under the auspice of “service.” We will be misguided every time.
So what do we do?!…
One might ask the question, what shall we do then? 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 will be given to all kinds of other activities that lead to undesirable sacrifice and sensuality. In reality our flesh will be looking for something in return for this service. But if we are doing it out of God-given desire, the desire of our hearts, not because of external demands, this is righteous.
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 to future generations. Circumcision by one man making access to righteousness possible for all future generations. 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 not asked to be Abraham or Jesus in these measures (matters of faith and redemption), we need to consider what our role truly is in the matter of service, individually. 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 grasp at the idea to serve on our own, especially without knowing that there will be at least some reward attached, but even without reward, service can takes on a life of its own. It can be birthed from true desire yet still in danger of becoming a rote or monontanous act. This transforms our role to now resist becoming a “cog” and keeping ourselves from acting instead of doing.
Acting as a cog, 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 it may be. (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.” Our 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 unto the Lord…
Service is only for the Lord. 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 have experienced. Is this not “shameful sacrifice”? We are sacrificing the ones being served in order to fulfill our own need for completion and fulfillment. When we treat service as unto the Lord, we cannot simply approach it with our own agenda.
Honor in Service…
See the story of Solomon (1 Kings 5). 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 there was no peace. (in the beginning there was peace between them-1 Kings 5:12)
Towards the building of the temple, Hiram had sent to Solomon 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.
Results of inspired service…
The major benefits of true 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. 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.
The Foundation of Service…
He paid it all! One person can set the tone for all generations. 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!.
