Sunday Sermons
Why Should I Serve?
Why should I Serve?
One of the interesting things about reading books is that you discover that other people have often thought the same thoughts or pondered the same questions throughout time. One common question is, Why should God rule and I serve? This is not a question that only a certain group of people ask. The simple-minded ask this question as well as scientists. Another way of putting it would be, “Why should a condition of my happiness be submission to the will of God?” In this lesson I want to explore this question.
In All The Wrong Places
I have lived long enough to realize that when it comes to one’s personal happiness we can often be completely wrong about what will indeed make us happy. I have seen people make decisions based upon what they thought (Proverbs 16:25) or felt would bring happiness, yet in the end they only found misery.
- Simply living for self will not make one happy. There are too many examples of selfish people who are miserable. Titus speaks of people who were living simply for pleasure and were very unhappy (Titus 3:3).
- Timothy is told about people who are lovers of themselves and pleasure and yet are not very pleasant people to be around (2 Timothy 3:2-4).
- Solomon reminded us that living for self, buying and building things, surrounding oneself with physical and earthly pleasures is also not the path to lasting happiness (Ecclesiastes 2:11).
- We can be very short-sighted. All of us have made a decision or bought something that we were sure would make us happy, only to find out that it did not deliver what was promised.
- God knows what He is doing in every corner of our lives. For some time in our culture people thought that marriage was a bad idea. Yet study after study only reinforces what a wonderful relationship it is. People who are married live longer, have a greater level of happiness, typically have more money in the bank, enjoy a better love life than their single peers and so on.
When Selfishness Rules
- We end up sacrificing long term pleasure for short-term gain.
- We end up using people.
- We end up becoming progressively more selfish, hard to please, and difficult to live with—even for ourselves.
- Real pleasures no longer satisfy us.
- We need more and more pleasure or things just to feel normal.
- We become ungrateful.
- We become angry and bitter.
- We abuse our power.
- We burn bridges with other people.
None of the above is speculation. Simply read Romans 1 where a group of people made the conscious decision that God was not going to rule in their lives, rather, they were going to rule themselves, and what happened?
- They became ungrateful: 1:21
- Nothing could satisfy them, they ended up greedy and envying.
- Their human relationships were terrible: Strife, deception, malice, slander and gossip all entered.
- Even though they had abandoned belief in God, they still could not get rid of God. They did not serve Him and they would have claimed that they did not believe in Him—yet they hated Him (1:30).
- They were insufferable, experiencing horrible relationships with their parents, insolent, arrogant and boastful, they could not be trusted, they could no longer love, and refused to showed mercy.
The Truth about Ruling
Ruling never meant that one can do whatever they want all the time. Ruling actually brings responsibility, involves making hard decisions, being on the front lines, being unable to avoid uncomfortable situations, no longer being protected, having to deal with stuff that is unpleasant. True ruling means that one typically has less time for self.
- God rules and sacrifices.
- Elders rule and sacrifice.
- Husbands rule and sacrifice.
- Civil authorities rule and give of themselves.
The Truth about Serving
Jesus noted two important things when it came to service.
- Losing your life for Christ will result in finding life: Matthew 16:25
- Greatness is found in serving others: Matthew 20:26-27
- Everyone “serves”. One either serves God or Satan: Romans 6:13-16
Our problem is often that we have heard so much that is contrary to these principles, we tend to trust what people tell us (even though we can see they are not happy) rather than what Jesus says. I have found that becoming a Christian, deciding to serve rather than be the king of my universe, all came down to the willingness to face the facts and patiently wait for God to reward me.
- Service results in happiness because you don’t have to lie to yourself, or convince yourself that you deserve something, rather one can simply do the right thing and feel good.
- Service results in happiness because service brings maturity and more skills.
- Service results in happiness because all of us are wired from "the factory" to feel better about ourselves when we are purposely working hard and being unselfish.
- Service does not mean that we miss out. You will be amazed how much you will experience in the course of serving. My life gets bigger when I serve.
- God can reward me better than I can reward myself. And legitimate rewards always feel better than cheap imitations.
- In marriage, it isn’t that both husband and wife compromise and neither one ends up with what they really want. Rather, husband and wife blend together, and together they often get an even bigger reward than they would have received individually.
God’s Answer
God does not rule because He selfishly wants everything for Himself. If that was His nature, He would have never created us in the first place, nor would He have sent His Son to die for our sins. Anyone who has read the Bible and seen how God extends Himself and the pain He has incurred because He made man, would never ignorantly argue that God is egotistical since He asks for our worship and love.
- God rules because He is qualified to rule and, of course, rules perfectly.
- As power hungry as some may be, no one could handle a single moment of ruling the universe—neither would they want to, if they stopped and thought about it.
- God designed us and thus He truly knows how we can function at our best.
- His commands were given to both keep us from making ourselves miserable and so that we could find happiness and sustain it (Deuteronomy 6:24).
Mark Dunagan | mdunagan@frontier.com
Beaverton Church of Christ | 503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net
