(Further reflections on “Serving God”—Sunday 9-Jan-2022)
Knowing God is an invitation, serving Him is a choice. God invites us to know Him through His revelatory word (Scripture/Bible) and through relationship with Jesus Christ who is the Word that became flesh. It did not stop here, God Himself, the Holy Spirit has made His dwelling in believers or followers of Jesus Christ. So in Christ, we got to know God. And knowing Him always leads us to choose between serving Him or other gods/idols (including self-centeredness).
When we read (Joshua 24:14), “If it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord…," we may wonder, was there a possibility for people to consider serving the Lord an evil thing? Well, apparently, it was. Because it would be an evil thing, in their surrounding cultures, if someone abandons the gods of their ancestors or of the land. Those who are brought up in Asia, generally speaking, know this well. Those who are brought up in the West, though they might not have ancestor worship thing , individualism or sovereign-self or self-worship can be their idols. God knows since the Fall (cf. Genesis 3), that the natural tendency of humankind is “wanting-to-be-god” which appears in many different forms and ways. If people who call God by His name and do not serve Him, they will be God’s people by name only and their heart, mind, and lifestyle are far from Him. People just wanted the blessing of God without getting to know Him intimately and serving Him faithfully.
Since serving God is a choice, it is by nature a covenant. And a covenant is an agreement between two parties with witnesses. A broken relationship is usually a result of a broken promise or agreement. It began at the Garden of Eden and has permeated throughout almost every activity under the sun. So those who are in Jesus; those who call Christ the Lord; those who say I am a Christian; those who are thankful for what God has done in their life through Jesus; and those who are actively living out their faith in Christ and serving Him faithfully in every aspect of their life are in a serious, respectful, and honorable covenant with God in Christ Jesus. The people of God can break or exit the agreement at any time, but simply because of God’s mercy, God Himself will never break the new covenant in the blood of His Son, Jesus. Unlike the old covenant in the animal’s blood, the new blood covenant in Christ is unbreakable, though it is ‘quit-able’ (on the people’s part).
Now since serving God is by nature a covenant, it is required that ‘Party B’ (God’s people) honors ‘Party A’ (the Triune God) in the agreement. It was and still is a call to God’s people, the congregation, the assembly of the saints, the church, the Body of Christ, to “fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods” which can be from our upbringings or cultures or idols/gods of the land. Now if putting away (previous or current) worldly lifestyle is something you are not ready to do, then please understand that serving the Lord is in a way “evil” in your sight (you will disagree on this) as the people in the time of Joshua who likely viewed it that way. And the flipside of this is, serving other gods/idols/self will be evil in God’s sight. The choice is really yours.
You have read this far and would probably say, ‘Amen’. This is a good start. But how do you know and other people know that you are serving the Lord? Well, none of us needs to show off or feel the urge to impress others how busy we are in serving Him in church. People often told me that they serve God outside of church. That’s great. But do you have a witness? You never shared with your pastor or fellow believers in church what are you serving and in what way? Even simply giving a testimony of how the Lord saved you is already a challenging endeavor. So I really want to know how can I pray for those who said they serve outside the church. You see, serving the Lord in church is a training ground, where grace abounds, spiritual discipline and pastoral oversight are in place that will help and strengthen you to reach out to the lost and serve the Lord. In short, whatever you do inside or outside church, ask yourselves these questions. Do you know Jesus? Does He know you? Are you serving Him? Does Jesus know that you are serving Him? Do other people (at work/home/church/community) know that you know God and are serving Him? You can convince yourselves however you want. Remember, God knows and people see. So regardless of how each of us is going to respond to the calling of serving God in every aspect of our life, I pray and hope (by God’s mercy and grace) that many of us will say, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15).”
May our knowing-God find its expressions in serving-Him in all aspects of life.
Your fellow servant,
—
Pastor Lap
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