On June 25, Pastor Bai Yu’e gave a sermon about serving God. This was the twenty-first sermon in the series on church revival.
First of all, Pastor Bai defined service as what was done in the name of the Lord.
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” (1 Corinthians 15:10)
Our service to God is to fulfill the trust we have from Jesus, not for our own ambition. Service shows our relationship with Jesus; it is not just a deed.
A servant is not afraid of people, poverty and death. He who fears God can become a person like this.
The servant also needs a full life, the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom from God.
God's church is left in ruins. It is not the church that needs us, but it is our need to serve God. Would we grow up without receiving pastoral care from the church? It is we that need the church, the believers and the fellow workers.
Pastor Bai shared: " When can we serve God? At the end of our lives? It is not when you have good life you go to serve, but if you serve, your life becomes good. Though we all have many problems, as we serve, our life gets better, we become more responsible and have a clearer understanding of our duties.
How do you find your gifts? When you do something easily, and the more you do, the more you enjoy it, this is your gift. If it is not your gift, things will not go well. For example, if God gives you the gift of preaching, you can speak easily and others like listening to you. The gifts also relate to other types of service, such as visiting, caring, cooking and so on. If others enjoy the delicious food you make, you have the gift of cooking.
The pastor emphasized: The purpose of our service is to bring the believers to God, not to people. The Pharisees at that time traveled over land and sea to win a single convert but made him a son of hell. Today heretics pull in lambs, restrict their movement and freedom and get money from them.
There are also traps in service. It can be turned into a religious activity, so that our spiritual lives will suffer, wither, and eventually die. We should not substitute activities for our relationship with God. Be wary that in serving, we want to highlight our position, exalt our status, and be famous. In fact, the more you serve, the less selfish you become.
Pastor Bai finally prayed and summarized her remarks: Let us serve Jesus and rely on him who is in us. We should lead people to him and help them establish a life relationship with him, not for our status and reputation, but for the Lord himself. Let the evil forces leave the church and the power that leads us to sin be uprooted. Let us serve the Lord till our death through the goodness of Christ.
-Translated by Abigail Wu
