The idea of serving God arouses in some people not only a wrong understanding but also an unwillingness to put this into practice. The reason for this is because these people are motivated by an egocentric spirit. In fact, the whole world is motivated by this spirit – an egocentric spirit. The "Ego" wants to rule and exercise dominion over people. "Ego" means "I", "my", "me". It is these components of ego - "I", "my" and "me" - that rule in this world and make it full of unrest and chaos. And it is not by chance that the world is like this. The reason for chaos is selfishness. That is why, in a world where arrogance and careerism rule, the word "serve" sounds degrading.
For God, the idea of "service" is associated with the highest honor. In the spiritual realm, you cannot be any higher than the level at which you are serving. You will not rise any higher than the level you are prepared to humble yourself in your ministry of serving other people.
Your success in life is determined by the extent to which you can humble yourself to serve others.
I personally try to set no time limits when I am serving others. I enjoy talking to people who come up to me and I like encouraging them. Even if I do not have time to get into a conversation with someone, I just stretch out my arm and touch that person and give him a smile to brighten up his day. Learn to give yourself to others and to be a servant. Build your life with the aim of serving others. Why the world does remember the names of certain individuals? Some names have become renowned simply because these people dedicated their lives to serving others.
From the Bible, we read so much of what God has done for people. He sent them His prophets and gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, in order to serve people on earth. Even in His death, God through the person of Jesus was serving others. After He has been raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of God the Father, Jesus continues to serve us.
Serving others is a high honor in the spiritual realm.
As a pastor, your standpoint must be like Jesus. It is a great honor to be like Him. But you have to separate yourself from this world.
Make it a priority to rise above the selfishness that rules in this world. Do not be trapped by the idea of "I", "my" and "me" in your service to the people. That is too low for someone who is a minister of God. Rise above it! Praise God, we have been born by the Holy Spirit and translated from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of His marvelous Light. We are no longer children of darkness but children of the Light. Build your life on biblical principles and bring it in line with the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever it is that helps to form you to become more like the Father is the real ministry.
Learn to be a servant; otherwise you will never learn to be obedient to God. God will never entrust a ministry to anyone who has not firstly learnt to be a servant among men. As you can see, your ministry to God depends directly on how you minister to others by serving them. Until you have learned to give your life for others, the Lord will, in no way, be able to use you in any ministry.
Your future depends on how wide open your heart is to serve people. Give all that you have for the Kingdom of God! The Bible says that there is he that scatters and yet increases; and there is he that withholds more than is met but tends to poverty. In other words the person who sows generously will also reap bountifully.
Conquer your own ego by extirpating selfishness, careerism, ambition and every other desire to seek your own personal gain. You may say that these things are not in you but we all are like that because we were all born in sin and have the same carnal nature. Accordingly, our tendency is to want, first of all, to satisfy our own self. Right from the beginning, we were born into a world where ego rules until we came to God and received the new birth, now, we entered a kingdom where love rules.
I want you to realize that the antidote that counters the egoism of this world is serving others in complete humility. Change your life by directing it towards serving others. A pastor has to have a heart that loves everybody, including his enemies! So, change perspectives and focus in ministry.
A long time ago, I made a decision not to allow anyone with me to be unaffected by the happiness that I radiate! If you are with me, I expect your situation to change; failure to depart from you and sadness and despondency would not be able to come near you. Whoever is in my presence should feel the life of God quickening his mortal body and reviving his deadened spirit.
The life of any pastor has to be such that recharges people. Your life has to be a blessing to others. Favour people with smiles; build your life in such a way that the love of God simply flows from your heart and shines through your eyes. People should be happy to meet you and find in you a person through whom life is flowing.
If you bring comfort and joy into people’s hearts, you will never feel despondent and your joy will be inexhaustible. If you give people happiness, then the happiness you experience will never end but will be filling you incessantly. If you bless people financially, then your own finances will increase. Build your life in this kind of way. Believe that the Lord exalts people who are faithful and devoted to Him.
You may say that you have nothing you can serve people with; you have no car, comfortable apartment and extra money. That you cannot give them anything; you have nothing to serve them with. But this is not true. With an ordinary tongue, you can simply speak some kind words to people. If you have arms and hands, you can give somebody a hug or touch them in a caring way. Without noticing it, you will forget all your sorrows and tears and life around you will become richer and brighter. That is what it means to dedicate your life to serving others.
So remember, you do have huge potential which you can offer to serve other people. Stop talking about your failures and problems. Instead, speak a kind and encouraging word to someone and, as a result, the world will become an increasingly better place. Is it not precious and wonderful to be a channel through which joy and love radiates the world?
Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble."
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time...
1 Peter 5:5, 6
It is God’s will to be humble and serve others. It is not degrading to be modest and lowly in mind but, rather, this is God’s stairway leading to greater heights.
In the Scripture above, Apostle Peter speaks about three levels where godly submission and humility are required.
THREE LEVELS OF GODLY SUBMISSION
1. SUBMISSION TO ELDERS
"Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders..." (1 Peter 5:5). At this level of submission, the younger ones need to submit to those who are older. It is not degrading to call your pastor by his full name. It is not degrading to address him in the polite form and call him pastor. This is simply God’s order. People degrade themselves when they do not do this. They will find themselves degraded before God and not able to stand upright before Him. God appoints pastors, and if the church members respect and submit to them, He will exalt that church.
A person who cannot submit to older people will never be able to rise above the level he is, he will achieve nothing. A person who does not submit himself to elders will never be successful.
You have to teach your church members the importance of submitting to the elders who, also, have to be in subjection to those who are above them. This is God’s order. Your life has to be governed by the Word of God.
2. SUBMISSION TO ONE ANOTHER
"...all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble" (1 Peter 5:5).
This second level is having respect for every person; even those whose level or rank may be lower than yours. It is not degrading to help a friend or sister carry her bag. It is not degrading to be kind. It is a good culture. The Kingdom of God is not a club of rowdy people or a mob of street gangsters. We are the children of a marvelous kingdom — a wise and advanced kingdom. We are the children of the Kingdom of God and we have a high cultural standard. We do not accept rebellion and self-will; we have a culture of submission.
Learn to honor every individual. Do not be so petty as to make yourself appear more important than others. If you respect people simply because they are God’s creations, God will exalt you. He will give you love, joy and life to the full. Do good deeds and serve people because nobody is unimportant not to be served by you.
A pastor should not divide people in the church according to class status or give preference to a person, or a group of people or a ministry above the other. Do not say, "I don’t have anything in common with those kinds of people, this person is not educated..." That’s immaturity! Humble yourself! The Bible tells us all to be subject one to another!
There are people who simply do not pay attention to others, they consider themselves better than everyone else and they are so exasperating. It is awful. Everyone is important before God. Every individual is relevant in ministry. And anyone can be used of God, in fact, beyond your imagination. You must see Christ and the wonderful hand of God in the lives of other people.
3. HUMBLE YOURSELF BEFORE GOD
"Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time" (1 Peter 5:6). The third level of humility is total submission to God. Simply, serve God wholeheartedly and unconditionally. That is why we emphasize that everyone in our church should serve God with joy. If anyone in your church still does not have a ministry or an area of service, he certainly needs to find one. Everyone needs to find a responsibility in the church. Everyone must be involved in church work - ushering, prayer, music, medical, children, and publications, etc.
There is always somewhere you can fit in to fully express God’s potential in you and contribute in building His Kingdom. Your submission to God is demonstrated when you give yourself up in serving God in any of these areas or others. The third level of submission requires you to give yourself over completely to God’s rule and offer yourself to God as a living sacrifice.
REBELLION
Every person either serves or rebels. Rebellion is a feeling directly opposed to submission. If you are not able to serve God, if you cannot serve those who are older and younger than you are, then you are in rebellion. However, there are also three corresponding types of rebellion.
1. REBELLION OF THE YOUNG AGAINST THE OLD
That is rebellion against those who are older than you. Some people have absolutely no respect for older people. There are children that shout at their parents and there are parents that yell at their children. I want to tell you a secret. People, who harbor rebellion and get impatient with people older than themselves, make their own lives shorter. These older people are not just your parents but also your teacher, husband and spiritual leader. If you rebel against them, then your days will not be long on earth (Ephesians 6:3). But we know the truth — the truth that will set us free from all kinds of rebellion.
2. REBELLION AGAINST OTHERS
Jesus said, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself". So, if you do not love other people or have no desire to do so, then you are in rebellion. A person who is rebelling against others cannot be happy. They are just as much depressed, in low spirits and irritable. This is what happens when a person rebels against other people. If you cannot serve people and submit to another, you cannot be happy.
No matter what your condition is or how many riches you may have, you will not have real joy and happiness until you start serving others. You will be continually depressed just because you never thought of giving others a smile, extending a helping hand or finding words of comfort for those who are in need. If you do not stop finding fault in other people, you will never be happy.
3. REBELLION AGAINST GOD
Rebellion against God is the most terrible. This type of rebellion is directly opposed to the third kind of submission. If a person does not serve God, he is automatically in a position of rebellion against Him. Rebellion against God always ends up the same way — with a curse and death. When someone rebels against an older or more senior person, he may die physically. But if you are disobedient to God, then you are rebelling against Him. The more you rebel against Him, the more you will die spiritually. You continue to exist physically but spiritually you die.
The less you obey the Word of God, the more you distance yourself from God in the spiritual realm. Even if someone in this state is singing in a worship team, leading a home group or evangelizing, this does not change anything as he is still in rebellion against the Lord and will be counted as such.
If you are disobedient to God and do not do what His Word tells you, you will suffer failure. Disobedience to God causes spiritual death. That means you lose everything. Perhaps, you wonder where the happiness, joy and peace you once had has disappeared to, and where on earth the worry and fear has come from? It is very easy to explain: you are not fully obeying the Word of God and so, in this way, you are being disobedient to the Lord. Rebellion against God is always fraught with serious consequences.
THREE WAYS TO SERVE
Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ;
Not with eye service, as men-pleasers, but as bond-servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,
With goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, Knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.
Ephesians 6:5—8
This Scripture tells us three things about the way we have to serve and it is important that pastors and church members alike know about them. Whatever we do, we do it as unto the Lord.
1. SERVE WITH A SUBMISSIVE SPIRIT
Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ...
Ephesians 6:5
This is the first way of serving — serving with a submissive spirit. It is written: be subject to Christ, be obedient to your masters, be in subjection to those who are older than you, be submissive and respectful towards others - with all fear and trembling. People need to see this ministry of serving others as a way of serving Jesus. That will make it much easier for them to humble themselves. Remember, you are not serving man but God. So, serve Him with fear and trembling. Whoever is not conscientious in the way he serves makes himself guilty before God.
2. WITH SINGLENESS OF HEART
Serve the people with singleness of heart as one would serve Christ. Pride and arrogance have never benefited anyone. Pride has never exalted a person.
Pride casts a person down and makes him have to wipe the floor with his nose.
Having singleness of heart means to be wholehearted and uncomplicated. Some people come to our church with an ‘air of importance’. While we rejoice, praise God, and sing and dance like children - they cannot do this because they feel too big. They are too serious! This is exactly that destroys a person! Being uncomplicated is not degrading. Being wholehearted is not offensive. Having a singleness of heart simply means to be filled with love, have a big heart or to be free.
Someone who is free and influential in the spiritual realm is always wholehearted and uncomplicated. He has a smile for everyone; he does not throw back his head and pretend not to notice people. A proud person is not free. Tyrants and dictators are always small-natured people, and as soon as they go away, everybody forgets them. People like these are always driven by the spirit that rules this world, by an evil satanic spirit.
On the other hand, single-hearted people show that they have been redeemed by Jesus. We have been filled with a spirit of love! That is why we serve with singleness of heart. If you are not able to ask for forgiveness or say sorry, you are admitting to a weakness and lack in your life — you are a very small person. Your place spiritually is in kindergarten. A single-hearted person does not find it difficult to admit his sins and failings; he does not regard that to be anything humiliating.
People respect those who know how to admit their mistakes and see their weaknesses. If your heart is as transparent as crystal, people will respect you.
3. WITH GOODWILL
"...with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men...” To serve God with good will actually means with active kindness. In Russian, it is aptly translated to "with enthusiasm and zeal". Whatever you do, put all you have into it wholeheartedly. Do everything as if there is no one else who could do it except you. Harness all your strength, use zeal and ability, employ all your energy and enthusiasm, and be concerned about the final result. Let it be seen that you are a person without selfish ambition or partiality, someone who does everything as unto Christ. As it is written, "...with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord...” Everything we do for Christ, we have to do it with a pure heart and complete devotion. That is His requirement. He asks us to serve Him assiduously.
A pastor has to teach his people to be cheerful and wholehearted, and to love God with all their heart, all their minds, all their strength and all their capabilities.
Do everything with zealous devotion! As you worship God, let your heart, emotions, strength and mind be concentrated on it! That is what the expression "with good will" means!
The Bible tells us to do everything well. If anything is worth doing at all, then it has to be done very well. Do not adopt a slap-dash approach in your relationship with people or be shallow and frivolous. Frivolity is the opposite of zealous devotion. We are saved not only from sin but we are saved from being frivolous as well. We change the world by our righteousness. In the world, people are frivolous in their thinking. The church must not teach people to think as the world, live as the world or teach things that are wrong. The world is not our standard. We have higher standards and values. Our standard is the Word of God and what is acceptable in the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of this world is too low for us it is excessively immoral, dissolute and filthy. You and I live in a Kingdom where orderly principles and rules operate.
Jesus Christ is our destiny. He is our model, we have to imitate Him.
If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.
John 12:26
Jesus promises that everyone who serves Him will always be together with Him. His servant will be there where He is. Pastors! Serve Christ in the church, your family and everywhere you find yourself.
"If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor" (John 12:26). What does it mean to "honor"? It means the Lord will bestow honor on him, respect and reward him. He will honor the one who is serving Christ!
Do not be deceived... for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap....
Galatians 6:7
Do you sow love and serve people in a practical way? Do you know how to be a servant? Without a doubt, the harvest that you will reap will correspond exactly with what you sow. When you sow in love and do everything as unto Jesus Christ, you will reap happiness, joy and benefits from the everlasting presence of the Lord in all you put your hands to.
