Emily Howard, Writer

Note: the following is the very first (not counting my testimony) “talk” or “mini-message” that I wrote and gave at my church. I am planning to go back to school and get my master’s in Religion this fall, so I expect this will be the first of many in my journey of getting closer to the Lord and getting over my fear of public speaking.

Why do we serve?

I have a question for you. Why do you serve? Why are you here today? Why do you give up so much of your precious time to serve the church and your community? It is an important question for us to answer. Everyone in this room is a dedicated servant. I have seen you give up so much of your time for things that you feel are important. Without you, there would be no Ford’s Chapel. But what I want to talk about today is the “why”.

It’s not only important what we do, but why we do it. Finding the “why” in addition to the “what” will bring new focus and meaning to our service.

In the past, my “why”s were enough to keep me pouring myself out, but not enough to keep me filled. I became burned out and resentful very easily. I would like to examine my past “why”s,–some of which you may identify with– and what scripture says about the real reason we should serve.

My first “why” was serving out of guilt and obligation. I served because I felt I was supposed to. That I would feel guilty if I didn’t. And this reason worked for awhile, but guess what? Atonement for guilt, at least for me, led to resentment, not fulfillment. For instance, when I would see all the people not serving, I would become angry and think, “why don’t they feel guilty? How can they just sit there and be so pleased with themselves for doing nothing? It’s not fair”. Such a lousy spirit to be serving from. It just rotted me from the inside out. God never meant for us to feel guilty. He wanted us to feel the joy of serving.

In second Corinthians chapter 9 verse 7 it says, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” This scripture doesn’t just refer to money. When we give of ourselves we should give it cheerfully, not resentfully or out of guilt or obligation.

My second why, and one I still struggle with, is to please people. Pleasing people gives me satisfaction. When you do good works, you get compliments. You get people thanking you and admiring you. And that’s great. But guess what? Sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you put your heart and soul into something and no one says a word. Sometimes you sacrifice a ton of time or money to help someone out and they don’t even say thank you. What then? Do you stop helping them? Do you complain to someone about how ungrateful people are? Do you put on your martyr hat and keep going? This is a surefire way to be disappointed. Every time. So how do we serve those who are not grateful and not become disillusioned with following Jesus?

Colossians 3:23 says “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” One day a few months ago I was struggling with my ministry and how I felt I was disappointing people and not doing a good enough job. It was affecting my emotional health. One morning I just had to sit down and have a good cry about it (in the shower, it’s the best praying place. Don’t believe me? Give it a try). In the midst of all this, I felt God very clearly saying to me, “you are not doing this for them. You are doing it for Me. And I am going to love you regardless.” And y’all, that weight just lifted from my shoulders and it was such a relief. Now I’m not saying I don’t still try to please people, because it is still something I struggle with. But when it gets to me I just stop and remind myself that people’s opinions don’t matter. Repeat it with me: PEOPLE’S OPINIONS DON’T MATTER. Your relationship with Jesus matters.

Now, there’s one more “why” I want to share with you, and I’m sure you are familiar with it, and it is this…I do it because it has to be done and there’s no one else to do it. Right? You’re tired, you’re cranky, but the chairs have to be set back up in the worship center. There has to be music for Sunday. The AC is out again. It has to be done.

Now I am not suggesting that if your heart is not in the right place that you should just stop doing your job and let things fall apart. Our pastor might kill me. But I am saying that we all need to spend more time in prayer and worship and scripture getting our hearts right so when we are tired we can stop and think of how grateful we are for our salvation. How amazed we are that God loves us even when we’re grumbling. So we can thank God for the amazing honor it is to work to further his kingdom, even if we are knee deep in changing diapers at the learning center or dealing with complaints from senior adults.

First Samuel 12:24 says “Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you.”

And you know what? I may get in trouble for saying this, but if you find yourself really serving from the wrong place, it’s ok not to. The church will not fall apart if you decide to take some time to reset and spend some time with the Lord. Like I tell my husband when he gets too stressed, “you’re not that important”.

We can give away only what we’ve first received. The reason we can love and serve God is that He first loved and served us through Jesus Christ. The more we are aware of and experience God’s love in our own lives, the more prone we are to respond in love by serving Him. If you want to serve God, the key is to get to know Him! Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal more of God to you. When we truly know God, who is love, our natural response is a desire to love and serve Him in return.

The Bible makes it clear that, when a person is in a real relationship with God, he will serve God. We should want to serve God because we know Him; an inherent part of knowing Him is a desire to serve Him. Genuine service cannot be separated from love. We can go through the motions of serving God, but if our hearts are not in it we’re missing the point. First Corinthians 13 makes it clear that, unless our service is rooted in love, it’s meaningless. Serving God out of a sense of obligation or duty, apart from love for God, is not what He desires.

Rather, serving God should be our natural, love-filled response to the grace and mercy we have received.

In the Bible it doesn’t say anything about how we should handle a clogged toilet or what to do when the wifi isn’t working. It does tell us that one: we are called to be like Jesus and two: Jesus came not to be served, but to serve. What an honor to be able to strive to be more like Jesus.