To Serve

As I was reading in Galatians chapter 5 this morning, verse 13 caught my attention.  For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. The portion that stood out to me this morning was serve one another.  The word serve means to perform duties or services for another person or organization.  As Christians, we get so caught up in what our purpose is or what we are called to do that we forget this basic rule to serve.

We are to serve others and to love others as ourselves.  I hate to burst your bubble, but calling your Pastor and making him aware of someone’s need, for him to help that person, does not constitute serving someone if it is something you can do on your own.  There is nothing wrong with notifying your Pastor if the need is greater than you are able to do on your own, but so many times we dump it on our Pastor and leave feeling like we did a great thing.  We justify this by telling ourselves and others how busy we are and that we just don’t have the time to help others.  When in reality we have time to do what we want to do but we have forgotten the basic rule to serve.

What about serving your Pastor or church?  When was the last time you saw something that needed to be done at your church and just did it?  When was the last time you asked your Pastor if there was something you could help him with?  We all depend on our Pastors and expect them to be there to serve our needs, but in most churches the Pastor can only count on a handful to serve his needs.  I can name the ones at my church that are there to serve and unfortunately it is not many.  I, myself, have failed in this area.  If you stop and think about your church, I am sure it will not take you long to think of the people, who are there to serve.  I am not talking about the ones that just donate money but the ones that are there when the doors open and are involved in every aspect of the church.  These are the people your Pastor depends on.

We often relate serving to giving of money when it can be so much more than that.  Your time and the giving of yourself is so much more valuable than money.   Serving can be spending time just talking to someone who is lonely.  Serving can be doing housework or yard work for the elders who can’t complete these task on their own.  Serving can be speaking to or smiling at someone at the grocery store because you don’t know what kind of day they are having.  Let others see Christ in us by our actions not just our words.

The flesh side of us prefers to be served rather than to serve others.  We get so caught up in our wants and needs that we forget about others.  If you want to know your purpose, it is to serve.  The Bible says in Mark chapter 10 that Jesus Christ came to serve others, not to be served and to give his life as a ransom for many.  If we are to follow Jesus and be Christ like, where is our service?

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