Service is a theme that runs throughout God's Word from cover to cover. The Bible is filled with countless examples
of ways in which God served His people, ways in which God's people served God and others, and commandments that
are related to service. In this lesson, we are going to take a look at five principles from God's Word that are
related to service. These principles are interrelated and should be taken as a whole.
As you study these principles you will be challenged repeatedly to ask tough questions of yourself. Why am I
so insistent in this? Because God has made it very clear in His Word that He requires service from us. Service
is not an option or a suggestion. It is a commandment.
Service is also our way to increased blessing and fulfillment in life. God does not command us to serve so that
we might be hurt, diminished, decreased, or made to suffer. Rather, God commands us to service so that through
our service to others, He might reward us, bring us blessing, teach us, and develop a closer relationship with
us. God always rewards our service with more of His presence and power and, ultimately, with eternal rewards that
are beyond our ability to imagine them.
Jesus said, “A servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If
you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (John 13:16–17). We must serve. But this is a command
we should delight in doing because service always reaps benefit—to us personally as well as to those whom we serve.
• How do you feel about service being a command from God? How do you feel about service being rewarded by
God?
Principle #1: Volunteerism
A true servant doesn't wait to be asked. He or she discerns a need and acts decisively to meet it. A servant
has a sensitive heart and a willing spirit.
A volunteer is motivated by love and prompted to action by the presence of a need. A volunteer is not
motivated by convenience or leisure time. Those who say “someday I'll get involved” or “someday I'll serve God”
are offering lame excuses. If you are waiting for a convenient time to serve, you will never serve.
Ask yourself, “What is it that I won't do for God? What is it that I wouldn't do for another person?” An honest
answer to those two questions will reveal your own self-pride. Jesus died naked, bloody, and battered, on a cross
that was next to a public highway. He was made a laughingstock—a crown of thorns pressed into His brow and a sign
above His head labeling him in mockery, “King of the Jews.” Jesus died for your sake so that you might have
a Savior.
Furthermore, Jesus went to the cross voluntarily. The Bible gives us these words of Jesus, spoken well in advance
of His crucifixion:
I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know
the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.… I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it
from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command
I have received from My Father. (John 10:14–15, 17–18)
Jesus was obedient to His heavenly Father, and the Cross was His supreme act of volunteerism. He gave
His life voluntarily for our salvation without regard to pain, suffering, mockery, or the disbelief of many who
witnessed His death.
Is there any type of service that is beneath you? Is there anything you won't do for Him?
God said about King David: “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My
will” (Acts 13:22b). Will God say that about you?
What the Word Says
Without your consent I wanted to do nothing, that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary
(Philem. 14).
What the Word Says to Me
What the Word Says
Whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as an offering to the LORD.… They came, both men and women, as many as had a willing heart
(Ex. 35:5, 22).
What the Word Says to Me
• Have you ever been forced to serve others against your will? Have you ever voluntarily served others? How
did you feel in each case? What were the outcomes—in your life and in the lives of others?
Principle #2: Without Comparison
A true servant doesn't compare his level or type of service with that of anyone else. Service is not hierarchical.
There is no “top floor, corner office” when it comes to successful service. God looks upon the heart and its motivation,
not upon results or achievements, in rewarding service.
As we presented in the last lesson, every person is capable and every person is qualified for some type of service.
Many people say about service, “I'd do more for God if I only had … ” These are only a few of the excuses given
in the “if I only had” category:
• his job and income
• his circumstances and time availability
• his opportunities
• his family background and status
Everything you have is a gift from God, and God considers what you have been given adequate for the tasks to
which He calls you. Rather than focus on what you lack, take a look at what you have.
Not only do you have adequate talents and gifts with which to serve, but God has given you a place and a people
to serve. God has given you your family, your business or place of employment, your friends, your church, and your
neighborhood as opportunities to serve. There are needs all around you. Target one of them and get started.
Once you begin to serve, don't criticize those who fail to serve. Jesus did not wash the feet of His disciples
and then say to them, “Now you wash my feet.” Service must be without criticism and without comparison.
Don't criticize your fellow servants or those who lead your service effort. Encourage them and build them up.
The person who gives encouragement is likely the person who receives encouragement. Offer suggestions when you
think they may be beneficial to the group as a whole, but don't criticize what a person has done in the past or
what he is attempting to do. You never know the full story. Only God knows the full extent of that person's effort
and the motivation that is behind it.
What the Word Says
For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves
by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.… But “he who glories, let him glory in
the LORD.”
For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends (2 Cor. 10:12, 17–18; also Jer. 9:24).
What the Word Says to Me
What the Word Says
Comfort each other and edify one another.… always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all (1 Thess.
5:11, 15).
What the Word Says to Me
• Have you ever compared your efforts with those of others and felt unworthy as the result? Have you compared
your efforts at service and found others to be lacking? What were the outcomes of your comparisons?
Principle #3: No Exclusions
If a person volunteers to join you in your service to others, allow him or her the privilege of doing so. Nobody
is ever too young to serve or too old. In fact, there's no retirement program for Christian service. Following
the Lord's example, we each are to serve the Lord and to serve others every day of our lives.
Jesus called His disciples “little children” during the Last Supper and said to them, “A new commandment I give
to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that
you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34–35). Love knows no age limitations. Even a
young child is capable of expressing love and care to others.
Just as you exclude no person from an opportunity to serve, you must not exclude anyone from receiving service.
Consider all whom the Lord Jesus touched with His hands. They included a leper, a child, and a blind man. He used
His hands to wash the feet of His disciples. Eventually, He spread His hands out on a cross and died for the sins
of all mankind. He certainly expects you to extend your hands to those in need regardless of their race, color,
culture, or type of need.
What the Word Says
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for
all (1 Tim. 2:5–6).
What the Word Says to Me
What the Word Says
For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died
for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh.… God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,
not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:14–16a, 19).
What the Word Says to Me
What the Word Says
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise … but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish
but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
What the Word Says to Me
• Have you ever been excluded from the service rendered by others? How did you feel?
Principle #4: Commitment
Regardless of the degree of commitment to service that you may have made in the past—or lack of commitment—you
can make a new start today. Ask God to forgive you for wasted opportunities to serve. Make a commitment to yourself
to discover your talents and abilities that might be used in service. And then, make a commitment to get involved
in the lives of others and to give, help, and provide as you are able. A real commitment is one that is acted upon,
not merely one that is talked about.
Commitment is required if you are to endure in your service through tough times and persecution. Paul wrote
to the Corinthians:
If anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will
become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's
work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. (1 Cor.
3:12–14)
Make certain that what you do with your time, energies, and talents is for the gospel, and your work will be
counted as gold, silver, and precious stones. It is what you do for your own self-serving interests and self-gratification
that will be revealed as wood, hay, and straw.
What the Word Says
Commit your works to the LORD,
And your thoughts will be established (Prov. 16:3).
What the Word Says to Me
What the Word Says
Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass (Ps. 37:5).
What the Word Says to Me
What the Word Says
Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may
hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel
(Phil. 1:27).
What the Word Says to Me
• Can you cite times when you truly were committed to service, and times when you were not fully committed?
What was the result?
Principle #5: The Outcome is God's
You are not responsible fully for the outcomes related to your service. Your responsibility is to serve God
and others to the best of your ability, with the full force of your love, energy, and talents. What happens as
the result of your service is God's responsibility.
The apostle Paul suffered greatly in giving service to the early church. His ministry was filled with conflict,
struggles, and troubles. If you were to evaluate Paul's ministry on the basis of the number of times he was beaten,
imprisoned, ridiculed and scorned, rejected, or assaulted, you would consider his ministry to be a total failure.
The value of Paul's ministry, however, was not measured by what Paul went through, but by what God accomplished
through Paul's consistent, persistent, and insistent preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It is God who saves souls; we merely do the witnessing. It is God who heals and restores; we merely do the “medicating,”
the praying, and the exhorting. It is God who delivers; we merely proclaim the power, the blood, and the promises
made available to us through the name of Jesus. When we serve, God works. He uses everything that we do for His
good purposes and eternal plan.
God calls us to be faithful. Our “success” is up to Him. Ministry is not something we do for God but,
rather, something that God does through us. He is the One who calls us to service, enables us to serve, and produces
His desired result from our service.
What the Word Says
[Jesus said] … “The Father who dwells in Me does the works” (John 14:10b).
What the Word Says to Me
What the Word Says
It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).
What the Word Says to Me
What the Word Says
He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it (1 Thess. 5:24).
What the Word Says to Me
• What new insights do you have into service and servanthood?
• In what ways are you feeling challenged in your spirit?
From Developing a Servant's Heart by Charles
Stanley. Copyright 1998 by Charles Stanley.
