- It is not an employment you wait for; it is an appointment that is waiting for you.
- Don’t look for excuses, look for reasons to serve God.
- Where you live, what do they know you as? Doctor or Servant? Pastor or Servant?
- If anything is above your stewardship to God, you need to work on it.
SERVING GOD IS EVERY BELIEVER’S RESPONSIBILITY
By way of introduction, we have been made to understand what servanthood means.
The question, “Who is a servant of God?” has been answered that anyone serving God and His interest on earth is a servant of God.
Anyone!! Young or old; male or female; educated or illiterate; first timer or even new converts. Anyone serving the interest of God and His Kingdom here on earth is a servant of God.
Romans 6:16
That means that serving God is not a gift. God’s servant, our father in the faith will tell us, “It is not a special endowment, it is a personal decision.” Serving God is not a gift but a choice. However, it is not just a choice but a wise choice considering the returns that follow through with it.
The Bible says, “If you Obey” – it is your responsibility, it is your choice. Not ‘if they force you to’, if you obey and serve Him, you shall spend your days in prosperity and your years in pleasure (Job 36:11).
Joshua stood and declared, “as for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). Serving God is not a calling, nor a gift nor an endowment but a choice. However, it is good to know that this is a wise choice to make.
I pray that God gives us grace to keep making this choice.
Serving God entitles believers to rewards that has no comparison on earth (Exodus 23:25-26). Look at the accompaniment of those blessings:
He will bless your bread and your water;
He will take sickness away from the midst of thee;
There shall nothing cast their young nor be barren in your land;
And your life, the number of your days He will fulfil.
That makes it the best and the most profitable choice can make because no other organization can offer this dimension of benefits. This is the reason everyone of us must be steadfast in serving God.
May we receive grace today to remain unmovable in our stewardship.
1 Corinthians 15:58
Paul counselling us, “be steadfast, unmovable”, because things will appear to move you, things will appear to shake you. Yesterday, God’s servant told us, “that at the beginning of the planting season when you get to an orchard, all the plants, all the seedlings look the same.”
At the beginning, it may appear it is not showing but you should be sure that it will show for sure.
It may appear as if it is not working because when you get to a poultry house, after the eggs have been hatched, all the chicks are the same. You can’t differentiate between the hen and the cock but give it time as they keep at it, the difference will begin to appear. As they keep at it, the change begins to appear.
What God is saying is this, “if you want the change don’t change.” Don’t stop, don’t give up, keep at it and in a very short while those that mocked you will return to celebrate God for you.
For today, we are considering that you don’t have to be an ordained priest to serve God.
Stewardship as we have been told is every believer’s opportunity and it is an open-ended opportunity at that. That is to say, you can’t excuse yourself, you can’t exempt yourself. It is an opportunity that is open-ended, it is not an employment you wait for, it is an appointment that is waiting for you. Before you were saved, God said, “that He chose you and has appointed you that you should serve Him” (John 15:16).
He has chosen you and appointed you that you should serve Him; that your fruit should abide: that whatsoever you ask – that you enter into that realm of rewards that nothing else can match.
It is not an employment that you should go around looking for, it is an appointment that you should step into and this appointment leaves no one excuse.
God says, “Ye shall serve” (Exodus 23:25). He didn’t ask you (for) your title. He didn’t ask you (for) your qualification.
“Ye shall serve”
I am educated: Serve
I am not educated: Serve
I am just coming: Serve
Paul came last but became first by service.
That testimony of that woman from Yoruba Church, that went about serving shows us you can’t excuse yourself, you can at best include yourself.
For instance, in evangelism, you will see that it is an open-ended opportunity. You may organize outreaches but if you can’t organize outreaches, you can offer compelling invitation.
A lady moved around offering compelling invitation by way of serving God and said, “come for our Marital Breakthrough Service.” Yes, she was mocked, “Have you gotten your own marriage?” She said, “No but my God will do it.” The testimony is that as the person she offered that compelling invitation came, God did the person’s own and did her own.
How do I know that it was a compelling invitation? For somebody to follow you after knowing that God has not done your own, just by your promise that God will do it, that invitation must have been irresistible.
The woman from Yoruba Church went about evangelizing, not doing outreach, maybe not speaking coordinated words but sharing handbills. She was sharing handbills. At first, she was mocked but at the end, over 50, she brought forth her baby, she brought forth her miracle.
What is God telling us? It is your opportunity. Don’t look for excuses, look for reasons to serve God.
2 Corinthians 5:17-
“And and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath GIVEN to us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18). As soon as you are born again, you have been given it is an appointment waiting. Once you are born again, you have been given. Before you got born again, the appointment was written, waiting for you to get born again and once you are born again, you have been given.
That means as soon as you get born again, you can start changing level, you can start scaling heights. That shall be your testimony.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were not priests ordained, they were not ordained workers but they were notable rulers in the land: politicians, public servants as it were but were unashamed servants of God. Their stories should be clear to everyone.
You know when they ran into problem, what happens to you during your challenges reveal your true personality. It’s like gold in fire, the real gold comes out when it is in fire.
Whether somebody is a believer or not, shows when he is challenged. That is why God is telling us, “Be unmovable, be steadfast, be businesslike, mean this thing, give yourself to this thing. Get to the point of ‘If I perish, I perish’, that is how you will not perish.”
Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego chose to serve God in a strange land when they were cast into the fire (Daniel 3:26-27). Nebuchadnezzar came, exclaiming, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,” not my servants, “servants of the Lord.” Not my employees, servants of the Lord.
My question is this, “Where you live, what do they know you as?” Doctor or Servant? Pastor or Servant?
If anything is above your stewardship to God, you need to work on it. God expects everyone of us to be known majorly as His servants.
Exodus 23:25
Moses: Ye shall serve
Aaron: Ye shall serve
New converts: Ye shall serve
“Servants of the Living God!!”: that was their identity despite their placement in the society
Romans 15:4
That means you and I have this as a pattern to follow: I am going right now to work on my identity until I receive this stewardship identity, it is not enough.
God’s servant, our Resident Pastor, he will tell us, “until you are told it is too much for you, it is not enough for you yet!” So, do so more.
Your parents must acknowledge it, your siblings must acknowledge it. Your enemies, even your enemies must acknowledge it. The enemies of Daniel said, “we can’t catch this man any other way but by stewardship” (Daniel 6:5).
When you are known this way, then God turns things around for you speedily because you have committed Him by covenant to do what His Word says He will do.
Finally, as we wrap up this morning, note this:
You are not wasting your time serving the Lord, you are investing into your generations:
There is no wealth you can lay in place for your generation that can be compared to your stewardship account with God because economy on earth can crash. We have seen world powers crash to nonsense. The world powers of yesteryears, where are they today? Even some world powers today are shaking. But you see, Abraham’s covenant is still standing. We are eating of it, our children shall still eat of it. In fact, it is in Heaven waiting for us to get there because God calls him father. When the scripture calls you father, nobody can ‘un-father’ you.
Psalm 112:1-4
Prayer: Thank God for this open-ended opportunity He has presented to you and I. Magnify Him, give Him glory. Celebrate Him. Give Him thanks.
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