6.6.08 Service=Obedience

Notes from my study earlier this morning.

 

So it would seem that singleness (only one), worship, and service go hand and hand, as we read in Matthew 6:24 and Luke 4:8

 

But how do we serve God?  Paul says in Romans 1:9 NLT “…with all my heart [spirit]…”.  So we serve God with our spirits.  That’s the supernatural tool.  The natural (or physical) manifestation would be “…by spreading the Good News about His Son”  If you read back in verse 3, it clearly says that the Good News is about His Son.  Not necessarily about the Bible itself.  I think that’s the easy and palatable way to define the Good News, but it’s clearly stated that the Good News is solely about His Son, Jesus Christ. 

 

Let’s take a real life example.  Let’s say you just had a new baby – a beautiful baby.  And you tell best friend that she can now tell everyone you both know that the baby is finally here and they can come and see the baby.  As soon as your friend leaves your house, she goes shopping, she goes back to work, she goes and picks up her kids, she goes home and cooks dinner, and then goes to bed.  You don’t see her or hear from her for a week, almost two.  You know by now, since no one has called or come by, that she obviously didn’t do as you had asked.  How do you feel?  Do you feel that she has served you well as a friend?  Probably not.

 

So as a Christian – a friend of God, it only seems befitting that real service comes through doing one thing only.  God told us in Mark 16:15 NLT “to go into the world and preach the Good News to everyone”. 

 

And again it would be really easy to say that ‘to serve God, we are to tell everyone about Jesus Christ’.

 

Somehow I don’t think that is exactly it.

 

I think I have finally come to the root of the subject.  The key words in Mark 16:15 were “he told them”

 

To serve God, we must do one thing – and one thing only.  We must obey God – out of a heart of submission.

 

Everything promise, every blessing in the Bible, usually comes after a command issued to us by God.  The promise or the blessing is just a side effect of the obedience to his command.  Just as death is a side effect of sin.  And all sin is, is really a disobedience to a previously issued command.  Sin is knowing right, but doing wrong.

 

People say the church is in trouble, the church is weak, the church is segregated, etc etc.  All of those things are just side effects.  A good majority of the church today (myself included sometimes), are just disobedient to the commands of God or to the commands of people that are in authority over us – like our parents, our preachers, our bosses.

 

And no, we’re not perfect, and, yes, we do have a free will, and some level of intelligence, so we can’t always expect to be obedient 100% of the time (or not with a right heart, at least).

 

But we can assess ourselves daily.  We can repent when the Holy Spirit convicts us of something that we intentionally or unintentionally did wrong.  We can make every effort to be obedient in all things.

 

Disobedience was the first sin, and is one that is at the root of most all other sin and bad things.

 

We have to take a stand.  No…I will take a stand – to keep my spiritual ear in tune with the Lord, so that I can keep myself on the path of walking in obedience and thus in His will.

 

I choose, today, to serve God through obedience.

 

Will you come along side me?