Why Should I Serve?

Assuming that we all believe what the Bible says – that we are called to serve in the grace of God, by the grace of God, with the grace of God – there is another question we have to ask and answer, “Why? Why should I serve?”

Of course, some would say, “Why does it matter? As long as you're doing the behavior (serving), it doesn’t matter. The most important thing is the serving itself, not the motivation.”

But, is that what God says and is that what God sees?

I see a lot of Christians standing before God someday and saying, “God, look at all I did for you!” and Him saying, “You didn’t do it for me.”

That is not only possible, it’s probable, if we don’t pay attention to the motivation of our hearts.

So why do we do what we do?

It is very possible to be doing ministry in His Name, but not for His Name.

When we do ministry in His name but not for His name, it's actually an idolatry of ministry. It’s done in service to another or done in service to ourselves, but not done in service to Him.

Many are serving in His Name, but are after their own glory, after their own praise, after their own credit, pursuing their own esteem and applause and popularity. It’s in His Name, but for their own name. It’s idolatry of ministry. There is no reward for this.

Conversely, many do works in God’s Name but for another’s name. They are merely the idolators of humanism who have raised the love of man up above the love of God. It’s idolatry of ministry. It’s in His Name but for their name.

We need a revolution that puts the first commandment back in its place and removes the idol of humanism and idol of self from God’s throne in our hearts.

There is much activity in the name of God that God knows is not done in love of God, not done for God, not done in worship of God, but actually is being done from a place of idolatry.

There is a better way. There is a biblical way.

Habakkuk 2:14 says: For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

Why do we do what we do?

Let it be this right here: that everyone everywhere would know the greatness and gravity of God.

When we serve in this way, we are doing things not just in His Name, but for His name. It’s no longer my story, but His glory. It’s no longer my name, but His fame. It’s no longer my platform, but my life as His platform.

This is the kind of service that pleases God and will be rewarded in eternity. That is of most importance.

But also, this is the kind of service that has an enduring source of motivation.

Eventually, hopefully, we will not be all that motivated to live for ourselves. We’re but dust and ashes, mists who appear for a little while and then are gone, and many eventually recognize this, even if it takes them way too long to do so. When we are driven for our own sakes it’s not an enduring source of motivation, if we see rightly.

And if we’re driven out of our love for people, what is going to happen when we start to see as God sees, that “there is none righteous, not even one?” (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Rom. 3:10) and that “no one is good except God alone?” (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Mark 10:18) What is going to happen when our followers flee as Jesus’ followers fled? What is going to happen when we discover how truly sinful humanity is and not actually those “good people with good motivations who are just misguided?” We’ll lose motivation.

What if we had a better motivation, a biblical motivation, that was also a more enduring motivation?

So many Christians have such an opposite mentality of Habakkuk 2:14. Instead of believing the whole earth can be filled with the knowledge of God’s glory (His gravity and greatness), they see all of Christianity as a giant decrescendo from the book of Acts until the second coming of Christ. Ugh. Pathetic. Demotivating.

What if the story written in our lives and in our churches was not a book thinner than the book of Acts? What if it was thicker?! If we ached for the glory gap of the knowledge of God’s greatness, it would be!

Was Acts supposed to be the crescendo of Christianity? So many are so defeated, because when they read Acts they believe it was the apex! They think they are faithfully playing their part living in a decrescendo. Who told us that?

Imagine instead the crescendo as a vault (<) – where we are those who long for God’s glory to be known to everyone everywhere and see ground zero as the launch pad for this mission!

That is what someone who loves God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength wants to give their life to. You see, when we love God, the glory gap is distressing to us. When we love God, the glory gap is disturbing to us.

Make no mistake about it, there is a 1:1 correlation between our level of love for God and our level of ache over the glory He is not getting. Where there is a lack of ache, there is a lack of love. If the lack of glory He receives doesn't bother us in the least, then we don't love Him in the least.

But when we know Him and love Him, we begin to get gripped – not with the shallow and fading dreams so many waste their lives on – but with the fact that He is not being praised for that (what He did in the Bible) here, now today.

There is a moment when the people of God begin to read about how Jesus gave recovery of sight for the blind, set the captives free, made the lame to leap like a dear, saved 2,000 in a day, shook the foundations in response to prayer, raised the dead and healed the sick, and they ache to see a world awoken by the testimonies of His activities in their own day and own time.

“What if my neighbors were hearing that Jesus is doing all that today, right next door? What if everyone, everywhere was hearing that Jesus is alive and active and speaking and doing not only what it says He did two thousand years ago, but even more than that today?”

Would we dare to imagine that?

I believe that God not only waits for a church to ache over the glory gap until the history book of God’s activity in their midst is as thick as the Book of Acts, but I believe God is waiting for one whose record of testimonies will be even thicker!

But, why are so few motivated?

Frankly, it’s because if we were to acknowledge that there is something we’re doing or not doing that impacted our experience of God’s presence and power, then what would we have to do? Repent.

What comes in the way of seeking the glory of God is that it would come at the expense of our own. The religious leaders of Israel could not accept Jesus’ teachings and the things He was saying for this very reason. They would have had to agree with Him and repent, which would rip away what they thought they possessed: respect, esteem, vindication and validation.

We need to abandon the idolatry of ministry obsessed with putting ourselves and people on God’s throne and reclaim the enduring and right pursuit of the saints.

In the lack of an ache for the glory gap, we’ve become a generation of soldiers on the front lines playing with tinker toys. But, let’s ask ourselves what general recruits soldiers for this purpose? Not God.

So many in Christianity become this, as they find a hobby, and as they incessantly seek to tinker with improvements that are a better version of empty. They seek to cover their emptiness with this activity, but their activity exposes how empty it is. Look at the activity of an army, and you can see the battle they believe they are in.

Those who pursue these empty and pointless pursuits do so, because they’ve lost sight of the battle, the purpose, the point. They are unconcerned with God’s glory gap.

They can’t see the shackles anymore.
They’ve forgotten there is life and there is death in the balance.
They’ve forgotten there is freedom and slavery.
They’ve forgotten that He is a King with a Kingdom and there is an enemy to be conquered.

I hear God saying, “To my church, I would say, wake up there is work to be done!”

Believer, don’t be defeated by the narrative of decrescendo. Dare to believe there is greater, there is more…more of Him, more ahead. Be emboldened. Be strengthened. Be renewed. Be steadfast. Live to close the glory gap, His glory gap.

Let this be why we do what we do.

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