Lived Out Faith: Serve Eagerly
Lived Out Faith: Serve Eagerly by Rev. L. John Gable
October 7, 2018
We have been talking these past several weeks about having a “lived out” faith and describing that as having a balance between our “orthodoxy” (holding right beliefs) and our “orthopraxy” (our right actions and behaviors). Clearly this is not a matter of one OR the other, but of BOTH/AND, as both proper faith and good works, orthodoxy and orthopraxy, together comprise what we are calling a “lived out” faith.
Using the guidance of Dr. Frank Harrington we have seen that such a faith is comprised of worshiping regularly – worship is at the center, it is THE essential, of the Christian life; and living worthily – according to the standard and value of being a representative of Jesus Christ. Today we will consider the importance of serving eagerly and then we will finish our series next week as we discuss giving generously.
It is interesting that Dr. Harrington includes “service” as an essential component of our faith. Just as we understand that we can’t be saved by our good works, so we must also be convinced that we cannot be saved without them. Service is the marker, the moniker, the trademark of the Christian life. Elton Trueblood states this truth, “A non-ministering (a non-serving) Christian is a contradiction in terms.” Evelyn Underhill echoes the same when she writes that “Our place as Christians is not in the auditorium but on the stage”, living out our faith in our homes and in our relationships, at our places of labor and study and recreation. Just as we have previously seen that in worship we are not the audience waiting to be entertained by the performers on stage who we call pastor and choir or worship team; rather we are the actors performing before an audience of One who is God, so the same can be said of our commitment to acts of service in Jesus’ name. When we serve, it is unto the Lord. To this end, Watchman Nee writes, “To have God do His work through us, even once, is better than a lifetime of human striving”, and we inherently know that to be true. People return from a mission trip or a tutoring session, serving a meal to a guest in the Open Door or sharing a conversation with a neighbor and there is a certain joy and energy about them that is almost palpable, even if they or we can’t quite articulate it. Why is that? It is because in that act of service we recognize that we are being used by God, perhaps in some seemingly insignificant way, to do a work that is very significant to the demonstration of His Kingdom. Seen in this way, what we are doing is not simply helping to meet the need of another; rather we are actively growing into the people God intends us to be.
Frederick Buechner writes, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” All of us are blessed when we find that place and believe me when I tell you it is worth the search. God desires that each of us discover the gifts and talents He has given us and then employ them, joyfully, in the work of His Kingdom. This is what it means to “serve eagerly.” Are you a singer, then sing to the glory of God. Are you a painter then paint to the glory of God. Do you like to work with numbers, with children, with IT systems, with a hammer and nails, you name it, these are all gifts and talents and abilities you have been given by God so use them to the glory of God! In short, “serve eagerly!”
Our Exodus passage is typically one of those parts in Scripture we kind of “speed read” over as it describes the design and building of the tabernacle, the portable dwelling place for God to live among the Children of Israel as they journey toward the Promised Land, but we shouldn’t because this passage introduces a remarkable turning point in God’s relationship with His people. After delivering them from the bondage of slavery in Egypt, He then gives them the Law, the 10 Commandments. These two events are often seen as the highlights of the book of Exodus, but in the passage we read this morning God does something else that is equally remarkable: He makes the provision to dwell, literally to “tabernacle”, among His people. The “transcendent” God becomes “imminent” as He “pitches His tent” in our neighborhood. And rather than miraculously plopping the tabernacle down from heaven, God very strategically uses the resources which these wandering people have available to them. First, He has Moses call for a “free will offering” from the people in order to gather the building materials, and then He raises up two skilled artisans and craftsmen to design and oversee the construction of the tent, Bezalel and Oholiab. So while everyone had a part to play in this project, through the giving of their gifts, certain individuals had particular tasks and responsibilities as they were so called and gifted by God, and so it is today. Each of us has been called into service as a member of the Body of Christ and each of us has been given particular gifts and abilities for particular forms of ministry and service. Like Bezalel and Oholiab, if we are going to do all that God intends for this body of believers to do, then each of us must prayerfully consider and seek to discover the ways we have been called and gifted by God, and then we must actually put those gifts to good use, eagerly, confident in knowing what we are doing, and why we are doing it and who it is we are doing it for. The take-away question each of us is being asked in this is, in what ways has God gifted me, and how am I using those gifts for His glory and purpose? Service is part of our response and responsibility to God; it is part of what it means to have a “lived out” faith.
Why though is there a qualifier to our serving? Why does it need to be done “eagerly”? Isn’t it more important that we just get some warm bodies in here to get the job done? Perhaps it would be if that was all God was interested in, getting certain tasks done, but He’s not. He desires more than that for us. Serving eagerly parallels our understanding of worshiping regularly and our living worthily, even as it will when we discuss our giving generously. Each of these separate components of having a “lived out” faith are designed for our benefit, to exercise the muscles of our faith and actually help us grow into the likeness of Christ who demonstrated His love, not only on the cross, but with a towel and a washbasin as He knelt at the feet of His disciples. Service isn’t something we simply “do” as Christians, it is who we “are”, if we are followers of the One who said, He “came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
We read in 1 Peter, “Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gifts each of you has received.” Just as refusing to share of our financial resources would rightly be considered greedy and hoarding, so would be our refusal to share the gifts and talents we have been given for ministry and service.
One of our desires, as part of our Vision Renewal, is that each of us seeks Greater Faith. How do you do that? Certainly by being faithful or regular in worship, and then beyond that by finding one place where you can receive ministry – a Bible study, a prayer group, a Sunday school class, and one place where you can give or share in ministry, sing in the choir or praise band, tutor a child, hold a baby in the nursery, the opportunities are endless. If we only receive ministry then we can become spiritually fat, or as one has put it so eloquently, we become “saved, satisfied and stuck.” But, on the other hand, if we only give ministry we can become spiritually anorexic. Catherine Marshall describes it well, “We cannot serve from an empty plate.” There is a balance here. We need to be fed in order to serve, and then conversely, we need to serve in order to exercise and strengthen our spiritual muscles of discipleship.
When we serve “eagerly” we are doing what Frederich Buechner describes as pairing our “deep gladness” with the world’s “deep hunger”. I had a friend in a former congregation who was a dentist. He struggled with this idea of serving eagerly, not because he didn’t want to serve, but because he thought he enjoyed it too much when he did. He loved to volunteer in the clinic and offer free dental care to an under-served population in that city. He loved doing it, but then he felt guilty because he loved doing it so much. He somehow had this mistaken notion that service was supposed be done begrudgingly for it to really count. Not at all! Match your giftings with the great needs all around you. That is the proven recipe if we desire to “serve eagerly.”
But that then begs the question, what should we do when we are no longer serving “eagerly”? Let me put this as plainly as I possibly can: GET OUT OF THE WAY. If you find yourself doing a particular form of ministry because you think you have to, or you ought to, or because if you don’t do it nobody else will, then you owe it to God and to yourself and to somebody else to get out of the way. You owe it to yourself and to your own spiritual growth to move on to something else that you are being called and gifted to do. You owe it to somebody else by allowing them to do the ministry you are currently doing, which they can’t do as long as you are holding that place, and you owe it to God by responding freeing and eagerly to the new calling He intends for you to do. When we serve eagerly it is a win-win-win.
How do we know when we are no longer serving eagerly and it is time to seek out a new avenue of service? Admittedly not all areas of service are easy and “joy-filled”. I am yet to meet anyone who feels “called and gifted” to do some of the “grunt work” of ministry, yet someone has to do it, and it may just as well be you, or me. We do those kinds of ministries and acts of service out of sheer devotion and obedience, which is also part of our spiritual growth and discipleship. But there are other ministries in which we are involved where we, perhaps over time, no longer feel very “eager” to continue. How do we know when it is time to hand the reins over to someone else? There are many indicators, one certainly is when we are de-energized in our doing it, or perhaps we are no longer even physically or mentally able to continue. Another, perhaps less clear signal, is when we find ourselves complaining or nitpicking about what we are doing or who we are doing it with or how they are doing it. Just as enthusiasm can be contagious, so can discouragement. William Barclay is so right when he says, “The world is full of people who claim to be extremely vocal in criticism and extremely exempt from action.” This posture has no place in the Christian life. When there is a need we are called to fill it, and if we aren’t the one doing the work, then our calling is to support and encourage, not to critique and criticize.
You see when we are actually engaged in the work of ministry; when we are elbow deep in the nitty-gritty of service; when we recognize that we, in fact, are the ones on stage and are not merely a member of the audience waiting to be entertained, we discover that we have little time to complain or critique because we are too busy doing the work that needs to be done. When we are actually engaged in the work of exhibiting the Kingdom of God to the world and furthering its influence we find we have much to celebrate and little to bother complaining about.
I remember one snowy Sunday morning in Wisconsin when a new member to our church came rushing up to me saying, “The sidewalk is snowy and has ice on it.” I braced myself for the complaint that was sure to follow, but instead she said, “So where do we keep the shovels and salt around here.” I’m not sure if I gave her a hug, but I should have. She was ready to “serve eagerly.” So if you find yourself critiquing, complaining or nitpicking about what isn’t being done or isn’t being done to your liking or that some of your needs aren’t being met, I suggest you look around and find a place to serve because there is real work to be done and you are one God is calling to do it.
The Apostle Peter closes this section of his letter by saying, “Whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.” This seems an appropriate way for us to end this teaching this morning and perhaps is a fitting conclusion to this entire series about having a “lived out” faith. May our worship, our living, our serving and our giving, not only bring us joy and gladness; may it not only help to meet the needs of our neighbors, near and far, but more importantly, perhaps most importantly, may it also bring honor and glory to God. To Him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.