Why Do We Serve?
When I was in elementary school, I was taught something called the five-question approach to writing. You’re all probably familiar with it though you might have called it something different. The idea behind it is that, before you write anything, you ask five questions; who, what, when, where, and why? I was always very interested in the question “why” and this fascination has stuck with me through my adolescent years. It is, in essence, a question of motivation–why we do what we do–and that intrigues me. So, as I began to think about the often discussed topic of the Christians call to serve I found myself asking “Why?”. We know that we’re to serve the Lord (Romans 12:11; Ecclesiastes 12:13) but why? What is our motivation for service to our Heavenly Father? The answer lies in the parallels between our conversion to Christianity and Isaiah’s experience in Isaiah 6:1-8. “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple" (Isaiah 6:1). The experience that Isaiah is having here in verse one is incredibly similar to one that every true Christian has. Isaiah is coming into contact with God, just like every New Testament Christian has. Obviously, the method is different. We come into contact with God through the act of Baptism (Galatians 3:27; Romans 6:3-4). But Isaiah didn’t just meet God. When he saw his Lord and Savior, his life was fundamentally changed, as ours is to change when we encounter God (Ephesians 4:22). Isaiah adjusted his personal view of God, which made him painfully aware of sin, so he prepared for service. We must do the same. Personal View of God “Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke” (Isaiah 6:2-4). What Isaiah saw he, through the inspiration of the Lord, communicated in a way that is easily understood by us today. He witnessed our Savior sitting on His throne, high and lifted up. He saw the train of the Lord’s robe, a symbol of His power and greatness, which filled the whole room (v. 1). He witnessed the blessed attendants at the throne of the Lord and he heard their anthem of praise. Isaiah found himself brought face to face with the majesty of God. Though you and I are not privileged to witness heavenly worship as he did, we also can see God. We can see Him:
In the heavens, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork” (Psalm 19:1).
In His Son, “Who being in the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3).
Through those who serve Him, “But God has revealed them to us through His spirit. For the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God” (1 Corinthians 2:10-12).
It is essential that we as Christians truly understand the majesty of God because it is in the light of His glory that we will be made painfully aware of the darkness that is sin. Painfully Aware of Sin “So I said: “Woe is me for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sins purged” (Isaiah 6:5-7). It wasn’t until Isaiah acknowledged the majesty of God that he saw the seriousness of his sin. Man’s sinfulness is a contrast to God’s holiness and God’s holiness is a condemnation of man’s sinfulness. Unfortunately, we are living in what some are calling “the permissive age”. Many today have abandoned Biblical truths and gone soft on sin. Even in the Lord’s church, we find ministers who try and sweep sin under the rug, refusing to preach on it from the pulpit. This is one of the worst things any of us can do. Matthew 11:28-30 says, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.” Only those burdened with the weight of their sin will seek rest from it. If we have no sense of sin, we will have no vision of God. We must examine the majesty of our Lord and, in light of His awesome nature, look at our poor, sin-ridden souls because, “Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted” (2 Corinthians 7:10). But Isaiah doesn’t stop there. After he has lamented his past transgressions, he prepares for service. Prepared for Service “Also I heard the voice of the lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8). Isaiah, when faced with a daunting task, did not have to be coaxed or bribed into doing it. In fact, no one even had to ask him. He saw something needed to be done, and he eagerly replied “Here am I, send me!”. You and I, as Christians, ought to have a similar attitude. We should be like the man in Mark 5. In this passage, we find a man possessed by a multitude of demons. When Jesus cast out the demons, the text says that, “...he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him” (Mark 5:18). So many of us today have to be talked into serving the Lord when what we should be doing is getting on our knees and begging for a way to serve our God. We should be, “steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58). A Christian who is not working is not a Christian. After all, God did not make us to be observers only but for “good works” (Ephesians 2:10). On January 20th, 1961, John F. Kennedy gave his inaugural address to thousands of Americans. At the close of his speech he made the following statement: “Let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessings and His help, but knowing that here on earth, God’s work must truly be our own.” In light of what we have studied together, I want to challenge everyone (myself included) to examine why we serve our Lord and make His work our own.
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This article was originally posted on http://www.tomorrowschurchtoday.com/
