Improving our Serve

Acts 6: 1-7

As the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased, the Grecian Jews felt discriminated against the Hebraic Jews and complained that their widows were being overlooked. The twelve apostles were increasingly having their hands full preaching the gospel and dealing with practical things, and realized something needed to be done in order for things to run more smoothly. Their main task of preaching the gospel would suffer if they also had to look after the daily tasks of providing food for the many believers who had everything in common. Both were important ministries, but coulnd’t be done well at the same time.

The Twelve brought it up during a meeting with the disciples and asked them to choose seven men who were known not only to be spritiual, but also wise.
This God-inspired decision brought forth seven believers who used their spiritual talents to serve in a practical way – serving tables and doing menial tasks.

Because they were obedient to God’s call, the Twelve now were free to devote all their time to spread the Word of God, with great results. Acts 6 tells us that the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly and even a large number of priests became to believe in Yeshua.

In the Body of Christ, each of us has an important task to fulfill, but not everyone of us can be a preacher.
Often, believers have a distorted idea of what it means to serve God.

They prefer to be active in spiritual ‘glamorous’ activities – worship leader, youth leader, Bible study leader, etc. And if they can’t function as a leader, it sounds more ‘spiritual’ to say they can’t be put on the roster to help clean the church because they’re going to the Bible study or prayer meeting.

Why is it always so hard to get volunteers to help clean up after a meeting? Why is it that always the same people are rolling up their sleeves?

What is often overlooked in the midst of our busy lives is the ‘helping’ – unfortunately a tainted word in our selfish society. But it can be taught and developed, and the best example we have from Yeshua himself: washing the disciples’ feet.

O yes, most believers manage to participate once in a while in those ‘foot washing’ ceremonies that are so popular nowadays. It's a one time thing, and everyone can see how ‘spiritual’ they are, washing each others feet. However, when you ask them to help wash the coffee cups after the service, they suddenly have other, pressing business to attend to.

Serving is a life style, which is just as spiritual as preaching the Word, or being a worship leader. The difference is that it’s usually done in hidden corners, where not many people see what you’re doing. We should ask ourselves what our motivation is: do we like to serve in the spotlight because it boosts our ego, (and we receive an instant reward) or serve in ‘secret’? This is often without an earthly reward and sometimes we are overlooked or ignored.

We should always keep in mind Who we serve. God promises us a heavenly reward if we continue to be faithful to our calling, in which ever capacity that may be: serving him in the spotlight, or in the hidden places.

God knows our heart, when He calls us to serve Him and we are obedient to that call, it’s up to us to be faithful. He will honor our commitment.

Even as we are serving coffee - a menial task - we may do it "as if unto the Lord".

“Work for God. The pay may not be much, but the retirement plan is ‘out of this world’!”