Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011
Works of Service
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-13)
In this passage, it says that Christ gave us apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers so that we may be equipped to do works of service. Charles Price preached on this several Sundays ago, and I found it immensely encouraging to know that works of service is the key to unlocking 1) unity in the faith 2) knowledge of the Son of God and 3) attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Have you ever wondered to yourself why your prayer life is so dry? Or why your bible readings have become stagnant? Or maybe even pondered if you need to re-commit your life to Christ in order to experience intimacy with Christ again? Well, essentially, if you are thinking these things – what Paul says in Ephesians is to start serving (aka. works of service), because serving is how God brings us into his agenda. You will find that once you start serving you won’t be just be praying for general things like “Dear God please help me outreach to the world around me.” Instead, he’ll start giving you a burden for specific things and you’ll start having a desire to pray and read more because what you’re doing for God gives everything new purpose and meaning. (e.g. “Dear God please help ‘Bob’ open his heart to your word as I met with him next Friday”).
It’s no secret that serving is how we come closer to God. So ask yourself how you can better serve God, if you haven’t already.