Service

August 26, 2018

"Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of inheritance ; for you serve the Lord Christ But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality." (Colossians  3:24) Here we can see that Jesus is clearly teaching that service to Him will be rewarded AND that those who do not will also be paid back !  That means there are NO exceptions. Everyone will be either rewarded or punished spiritually upon the death of your body. That should encourage believers to serve with all of your heart. Likewise it should scare all non-believers that they will be punished for serving any one or any thing other than Jesus. Philemon shows us, however, that we are not to use this as an excuse to disobey our earthly bosses or overseers.

Ezekiel 48 : 9-10 says " The district that you shall set apart for the Lord shall be twenty-five thousand cubits in length and ten thousand in width. To these - the priests - the holy district shall belong."  The Old Testament is an outward and physical manifestation of the spiritual truths taught in the New Testament. In this passage we see that God is rewarding the Levites with their land. They were expected to serve God ONLY. The tithes to the Temple were meant to keep them in food and God was providing all things to them. This is the same concept we saw in the last passage only in this world and not in the spiritual world. The message could not be any plainer : Serve God only and you will be rewarded !

"And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry ..." ( 1 Timothy 1 :12 ) Several key things here to see as it relates to service. First, we see that Paul was enabled to serve because he was counted faithful ... by God. Secondly, he was PUT into ministry by God. Lastly, Paul was enabled. This verse goes on to draw the difference between being saved and not saved verses being enabled to serve. No one then can serve God unless these three things are done. 1) you must be saved, 2) You must be enabled by God, and 3) however you serve you must be put there by God. That is why Christians will say that they were "called" to do whatever service they are doing. If you do not feel as though you were called by God to serve in a specific manner ... Don't !