Summary
Serve
"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" Joshua 24:15 is more than a household motto. It names the posture of every Christian life: God is sovereign, we are subject to Him, and we are called into service that takes a great variety of shapes.
Peter places that calling squarely within the gifts God has given His church: "Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received" 1 Peter 4:10. A steward is a manager of what is not his own. The grace of God is "manifold"—many-sided—and one expression of that grace is the spiritual giftedness God distributes to His people. As Paul writes, "to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" 1 Corinthians 12:7. If you confess Jesus as Savior and Lord, you have at least one such gift. These gifts are not always static; God in His sovereignty can also bestow gifts for a particular moment or situation. The point of every gift is the same: to serve.
There is, however, a striking twist in the Christian doctrine of service. The God we are called to serve is not a needy God. When Paul stood in idol-saturated Athens, he proclaimed the true God who "does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things" Acts 17:24-25. God is complete. God is the Giver. And the One we are subject to and called to serve has, astonishingly, served us. Jesus says, "the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" Mark 10:45. The supreme act of service is the cross, where Jesus takes our sin upon Himself, pays a debt we could never pay, and rises from the tomb to overcome death for us.
This reorients us in a culture that constantly trains us to be consumers and evaluators—to ask after every interaction whether we were served quickly enough, kindly enough, to a five-star standard. “Serve” 12-19-21 presses the question: do we see the people God places in our path today as those who exist to give to us, or as those we have the privilege to serve? The Christian sees relationships not transactionally but relationally, because we live as servants of the King who served us by dying and rising for us.
Peter completes the thought: "Whoever serves, must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen" 1 Peter 4:11. God gives so that we may give. He has served us with His grace so that we, in His strength, might reflect the servant heart of the One we follow. Service can be as simple as a kind word, a glass of water for the repair worker, patience with the tired clerk at the register—or as costly as the Lord may lead.
This is where purpose is found. We do not draw purpose out of our work, our paycheck, or our status; we bring purpose into them. We bring our identity as baptized children of God and our calling as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Repent, pray, grow, and serve—an army of the church serving in the name of Christ changes the world around it. We have received from Him; therefore we give.
Video citations
- “Serve” 12-19-21 — Would you open your Bibles please with me this morning to first Peter the fourth chapter for our study? If you're using a Pew edition of Holy Scripture, please find that on page 207. Page 207. First…