Dear BPCWAians, We just witnessed Rededication Sunday today. For those who are serving in various ministries, you took your vows to serve the Lord with continued fervour and purity. Some of you may still be on the sideline, either still wondering whether you should start serving or waiting and seeing how your life works out before you start. Really, serving our Lord is not an option. In fact, it is a privilege and joy.
You are part of the church. Being part of church is being part of a family, a spiritual family. Like any family member in our homes, we do our part to help in the household and contribute in different roles. We may be busy at work, have personal commitments, and may have to make sacrifices, but yet, we are naturally ready to make sacrifices to help our own family. So, Gal 6:9-10 reminds us, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith”. God put you in BPCWA. It is your local household in the faith. Let us not sidestep and avoid our part.
You experience blessing when you serve. In Act 20:35 , we are told “. . . to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive”. It is a truth, a fact, which you will experience when you give of your time, energy, and resources to others and the Lord’s work. Those who serve know this best. Those of us who keep serving our own comfort, our own pleasures and our own possessions will soon find either the emptiness of it or the dissatisfaction in life. There is a true blessedness – a happiness and joy – in giving rather than in receiving. This is what God made the believer to be. For the believer, you must know that the joy that comes from busy service far exceeds that of having much time to go shopping, sitting in front of the TV/internet or from meaningless wandering around to “kill time”. You can only experience this when you start serving the Lord.
You experience God’s help as you serve. Some of you may think 1) I have no abilities or 2) I am too busy and cannot serve. In the first case, God wants you to know He has given and assigned you at least one gift, although not everyone has the same and equal number of abilities. Do not belittle yourself. The fact that all have at least one talent is affirmed in 1Cor 12:7 “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal”, and in 1Cor 12:11, “But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will”. In the second case, if you think you are too tied up with family, work, and school and have no time or health, do know that God will enable, take care of things and provide, if you commit to serve Him. Why would not your Heavenly Father be pleased to make it possible for you who wish to please Him? In fact, a common testimony of those who serve indeed experience how God takes care of many things at home, work, and help in studies and health. If we choose to spend our energy on ourselves, then God lets us try to take care of our own things instead. God promised in 1Sam 2:30 , “Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed”. But of course we should serve simply because we love Him, not so that He helps us in our things.
You may consider these areas. We should be willing to serve when approached with the privilege. However, we need not think that service to God means one must be in major and key roles. Neither does it mean that one must be doing something prominent in eyes of man. There are roles for leaders but there are also many other areas that need involvement of many as well. There is unity in diversity, 1 Cor 12:20 “But now are they many members, yet but one body”. And some parts are hidden and weak but are still critical, 1Cor 12:22 “Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary”. Background roles are often what help the foreground roles to function. Simple tasks you can be part of can be helping to set up and clean tables and chairs, come early to boil rice and water, packing up after an event, sitting with and talking to new visitors, hosting them in your home, picking people to church, helping to prepare the sanctuary for Worship on Sundays, flipping hymn books at Nursing homes, visiting and cooking for the sick at homes etc. In fact, the hospitality ministry of helping the elderlies, the sick, the families with new babies, and also the new students are all much needed areas of service. This is a spiritual work to encourage and care for others in their spiritual walk with the Lord as we help them. But remember, you serve the Lord, not the church, nor its leaders. So will 2017 be the year you will awake from slothfulness and start serving your Lord?
Yours in our Lord’s service
Pastor