Serving As Worship

By Alex Nichols

This is part six of a nine-part series on spiritual disciplines meant to edify the church on disciplining ourselves to fulfill Jesus’ commandment to love one another. Now more than ever, we need to be reminded, challenged, exhorted, and conscious of what we’re doing with our time and how we’re disciplining ourselves according to God and his word. 

Serving

A common theme seen as we continue to study the spiritual disciplines of men and women of God is that they are often counter-cultural. The spiritual disciplines are counter-cultural because they go against the natural inclination each of us inherently have. In other words, we aim to worship and serve ourselves, rather than our Creator. Furthermore, anything that requires additional sacrifice and effort that does not directly benefit us at any level doesn’t motivate our prideful hearts that need to feel good and be worshiped. The spiritual discipline of serving is undoubtedly no different. Service is worship and warfare that is enabled by Jesus’ ultimate servanthood through his life, death, and resurrection.

We all, at all times, are living our lives in service of something. You can find out what a person worships by looking at what they make sacrifices for and serve. For the follower of Jesus, at the root, serving is ultimately a form of worship that is a result of one’s experience of the gospel and coming to Christ. When we are serving we must see that we are worshiping and that we are declaring to others the reality of who Jesus is and what he has done. 

Deuteronomy 10:12 says, “And now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul…” And then again eight verses later, “You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him…” When we experience and understand who God is we’re humbled, in awe, and out of reverence and fear moved to serve him. 

Worshipping God

To serve and worship God rightly we need to know and fear him. Even then, we struggle and are often inclined to not serve God or his people because our hearts are naturally and often inclined to evil, and they are deceitful and wicked (Jer 17:9). Therefore, we must see that because of the natural inclinations of our hearts when we are serving, we are at war. We war against what’s natural to us (that is, to worship ourselves), and our war is against the spiritual forces of evil and cosmic powers (Eph 6:12) as we seek to serve king Jesus. 

As we serve Christ, we don’t do so as if he is twisting our arm. Rather we serve out of an overflow of gratitude and reverence for what he’s done. The degree in which we know, enjoy, and experience Jesus’ servanthood through his life, death, and resurrection will be the degree in which we ultimately seek to serve him and his people. The Bible teaches us that we serve our God by serving one another.

Paul in Galatians 5:13 states, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” In the freedom that we’ve been given through Christ’s sin atoning sacrifice, we’re called not to serve the flesh, but instead to serve one another. Paul understands that there is a war going on all around us. He understands that as we serve we’re going against everything that culture, our flesh, and Satan and his demons invite us to do. After all, was it not the prideful self-service of the eaten fruit that resulted in the fall of man?

Holy Spirit Power

In light of all this, knowing who we serve, why we serve, and then how we might serve is crucial, with the right reverence of God, understanding what he’s done, and with the help and the power of the Holy Spirit he’s given us. The reality is that true service is not about ourselves, it’s about God. Jesus spent his entire life serving God the Father rightly in every single thing he said and did. This is great news for us because we know as Paul says in Romans that we desire quite the opposite. It was so bizarre to people thousands of years ago to see the Messiah, the Lord of Lords, take on the form of a servant that we killed him for it. 

If you’re not naturally yearning to serve God and his people with zeal, don’t fret, it’s not just you, it’s all of humanity. Paul states that no one understands God, no one seeks for God, no one does good, that their tongues and mouth are full of evil, deception, and bitterness, and that they ultimately do not fear God (Rom 3:10-18).

As we serve, we must be careful to not do so out of an abundance of our strength, because that is what got us here in the first place. Our reliance must be on the ever sustaining strength of God. As we serve God and others we serve out of his power. In Ephesians 6:10, Paul says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” Even as, practically speaking, we have to consider that when we serve God and others it is active work. 

Serving with our gifts

God’s word is clear that he has given all of us a variety of different gifts to serve not ourselves, but to serve one another as stewards of his grace (1 Pet 4:10). This can take on various forms, but serving the body of Christ is a great place to begin. While we may not be meeting face to face, there is an abundance of ways that we can serve each other, and it will require intentionality from us to do so, and us laying our lives down. 

Connect with and reach out to those in your Community Group. If needs are not being shared weekly, or at all, simply asking how we might be able to serve those in our group during the week could be wise and helpful. Next, we should seriously consider ministry outside of the church and how we might serve others. If we serve only those that know Jesus I’d argue that we’ve very much missed the mark and a true understanding of the gospel. Consider those that you interact with regularly outside of the domains of church. What are their needs? Again, if we don’t know, we can always ask and offer our time, talent, and treasure. 

If all of life is in service of something, then the goal of our lives is ultimately service to God in all things. That’s what is meant by declaring service as both worship and warfare. If everyone is fighting an invisible battle, our service to one another might be the reinforcements someone needs. Consider Jesus’ life while he was here. Every moment he spent ministering to and serving and helping others was because of his relationship with God the Father. He served and warred well with every waking moment. 1 Corinthians 9:19 says, “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.” And in Matthew 20:28, “…even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” 

Philippians 2:3-8 says, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” 

May we see that by serving others we not only honor God, but we declare that our perfect servant Jesus is who he says he is. May we count others more significant than ourselves and love them as Christ has loved us, and may we strive to serve, worship and war well knowing that Jesus is our victor.

Upcoming Serving Opportunity

In light of all this, we at The Well are finding new opportunities for us collectively to serve our communities. We are excited to announce that we are partnering with WOW OUT Ministries, (Women of Worth Outreach Ministries). We are inviting the men and women of our church to serve this organization through the sorting clothing to be distributed to the homeless in our city. Here’s more from Beth Miles who leads WOW OUT.

“We are a non-profit organization that aims to draw women into service and offer opportunities to learn more about Christ. However, we have a strong group of men that are also involved in just about everything we do. We collect clothing on an ongoing basis to distribute to the homeless in San Antonio. Until the COVID restrictions, we were distributing clothing, haircuts/hair wash, food and the gospel along with other churches in a parking lot on the east side monthly. That has been on hold for the last few months. But, we have had clothing donations continue to come in. We have just started gathering back together to sort through and organize them in the last month or so. We do that out in the courtyard at Northeast Baptist Church (NEBC). We are not connected to any particular church, but aim to work with different churches in order to serve the community. NEBC has been so amazing to allow us to house our clothing room at the church.”  - Beth Miles

On September 19th from 9 AM to 12 PM we will be serving alongside WOW OUT at NEBC. Everyone can come and go as they need. Kids are welcome if watched by a parent! If you need more info or have any questions about any of this you can email us at info@thewellsa.com

Additional Serving Resources:

Savoring God by serving the saints - https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/savoring-god-by-serving-the-saints 

What does it mean to serve God? - https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-does-it-mean-to-serve-god

Serving God - https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/serving-god/ 

Don't use 'Calling' to avoid serving - https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/dont-use-calling-avoid-serving/