We may have served in different aspects before; be it cleaning or interpreting work in church. Have we done the work well? What does it mean to do the work well and what does it mean to not do well?

Why do we need to serve God?
Read 2 Corinthians 5:15;

‘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.’

Here, Paul told us this point: Jesus died for all

The purpose of Him dying is for those who live to not live for themselves but for God. The reason why we serve God today is because He has died for us and we should live no longer for ourselves. Our lives belong to God and if not for Him, we would not be here today. If we live, we should live for Him to repay Him. This is reasonable; if we owe a debt to someone we should repay the debtor. We repay Christ’s debt by serving Him.

For example, we would be willing to repay our parents because our parents have first made sacrifices for us. A lot of times, we do not see our parents’ sacrifices but from the sacrifices we can see, we know that it is as though they have used their lives for us. So, as we grow up, it is only reasonable for us to repay them. Although Jesus had commanded us to honour our parents, even without this commandment, we will do it if we have a conscience. Do we not have this consciousness to repay God? If we do not repay our parents, we will feel guilty, but do we feel the same guilt when we don’t repay God? The irony is that as Christians, sometimes we do not have this guilty conscience when we do not repay God. We do not realise that we must live for Him and we even murmur against God when we meet with tribulations, without examining ourselves to find out the root of the issue.

Consider this from the perspective of a family
If a child murmurs against his parent because of such an issue, the child would be deemed really unfilial because he does not have a guilty conscience. The child would be condemned by the society.

But with regards to our faith, we do not have such a concept. We always think that God should allow our lives to be smooth If we were to apply this into the family situation, we should be deemed unfilial and condemned by society.

Why should we serve God today?
If we do not love God enough, we will not serve God. If we’re willing to serve God, what is the motivation behind the service? As we serve God, what is the motivation to serve God with a good attitude? This is something we must reflect deeply on.

1. Personal worship is our fundamental service to God

What does it mean to serve God?
Let us read Joshua 24:15;

‘And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord , choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord .”’

The word ‘serve’ was repeatedly used in this verse. When we talk about service to the Lord, we focus our attention on perhaps service as a work; the work of playing the piano or hymn leading. However, in this verse, he did not mention what he was serving God in. Joshua also did not expound which areas he would be serving the Lord in the following verses, he just said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” With reference to this service, what does it mean to serve God? The message would be to worship God; to worship God is a form of service.

What accounts as good worship?
Read Romans 12:1-2;

1 ‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.’

The essence of these 2 verses is how we should worship God. To worship God well is to present our bodies as a living sacrifice; to put ourselves on the altar as a sacrifice. In the Old Testament, we read that once the offering is placed on the altar, the offering cannot be taken back. This is because the offering is already dead and is placed on the altar, ready for sacrifice. Today, we are not to be like the dead sacrifice in the Old Testament. However, Paul here says that we must be a LIVING sacrifice. We have been separated and now belong to God. In the Old Testament, the offerings died for God. Now, as living sacrifices, we live for God. The best service to Him is for us to live for Him; this is the most fundamental act for service. Before talking about being in the EXCO or leading the church, we must first live for Him because this is the way in which we should serve God.

Let us examine ourselves: are we living for Jesus?
Back in 2 Corinthians, the reason we live for Him is because He has died for us. To live for Him is the core of what we do in our worship and service for God. If today we do not spend time and effort to spiritually nurture ourselves, we may realise that though we may be involved in various types of service, the process may not be very smooth though we have accomplishments. To not have a very smooth form of service may include us feeling overwhelmed, tired, frustrated or the want to give up.

Why would one have such sentiments?
This is because we have not properly spiritually nurtured ourselves. It means that what we are doing is not for the sole purpose of Jesus.

Who is the person who has spent his whole life serving God?
Some may think of Paul but he probably has not done as much as Jesus. Perhaps Paul lived longer than Jesus, hence the work he has done on earth was more than that of Jesus’. However, Jesus is the ultimate model for service because He serves everyday; the suffering He has gone through is a 100 times more, yet He did not give up.

How was Jesus able to continually serve?
He knew what He was serving for. If we do not hold ourselves to this standard of spiritual nurture, it will be hard for us to serve in the church. This is the fundamental standard in our service. Before considering any aspects of service, consider the fundamental core of our service.

The church is also observing who is suited for which aspect of service. From the perspective of the EXCO, who would you think of to do certain work? Of course, different work has different expectations. To consider a member to be a RE teacher, the considerations would be: the person’s behaviour and morals, Bible knowledge, faith. As for work such as church cleaning, there would be a different set of considerations. With regards to cleaning, unless it is for the purpose of everyone coming together to clean, we do not specially ask people to clean. If there is a need to clean a specific area for the long-term, there would be a schedule produced. In this case, who would you think of to ask and who to not think of to ask? We will not ask those who do not come to church at all or those who leave immediately after service. This is because we have seen that these people’s personal worship has not been done well. How can they be delegated the cleaning jobs? They would have to first make well their personal worship. Therefore, there are such considerations even for simple work like cleaning. This is the fundamental thing we must consider for service. If we really want to worship God in church, we have to first make sure that the basics of our faith is done well; personal worship with God.

2. What work is there in church?

In church, the work is split into 2 main categories of work:

1. Direct service to people
2. Indirect service to people

But before we consider the categories of work in church, we should consider what kind of attitude we should have in serving God. We read Matthew 20:25-28;

25 ‘But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. 26 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. 27 And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”’

V28 says, “This is the Son of Man and this is Jesus. When He came, He did not come to be served but to serve”
This is the attitude we ought to have when we serve in church; we are here to serve and not to receive benefits. Some people serve because they are seeking for something to gain. One of which is to receive people’s respect/praise. They lift themselves up in order to be admired; perhaps they want to be like Moses whose face was shining when he came down from Mount Sinai. If one has such an attitude, then it is not the correct attitude because his aim is to receive admiration in church.

Jesus was respected by men and He also spoke with authority. However, Jesus served with humility; the pharisees even asked the people following Him, “Do you not know that He is a sinner?” If we serve in order to lift ourselves up, it is wrong because then you only want the applause of men. Therefore, when we serve God, we must consider the type of attitude we have.

The speaker feels that the majority of people who serve do not have such an attitude [of serving for applause]. If people had such an attitude, the church would not be so sluggish. This is because people with such a mindset are very enthusiastic and often push people in getting things done. Though their attitude is wrong, they are able to encourage people to get things done. Yet, we see that many are sluggish in church, so it means that not many have the attitude [of seeking men’s applause in service]. But this poses another issue: when you serve, what do you seek to gain? Are you truly serving God?

It says here that Jesus came to serve men. If you serve but do not have the attitude of serving men, why do you serve? This is something to consider: when you serve, who are you serving? Do you serve because of peer pressure? What is your motivation for service? We must examine our attitudes.

Today, if we have the right attitude and motive to serve, it is good. We can start small. The Bible also says that if we are faithful in what is least, we will also be faithful in what is much. If the church sees that we are wholehearted in the small things, we can also do what is big. In whatever work we do, be it cleaning, AVA or tending the garden, let us do it diligently. This is the church’s way of allowing us to start small and progress further. Let us not deem these works as ‘small’ and hence not do them to the best of our abilities. We must understand that though these seem to be ‘small’ work, we must do them well.

When the speaker was in poly, about 17-18 years-old, he went to church frequently. Before service started, he would already be in church. A sister gave him a very simple task; if he did not mention it today, no one would know that there was such a work. Many local churches have also done away with this work but there is still this work in TK. Though very simple, it has a huge impact.

On the pulpit, there are cups of water. In Adam, the speaker’s job was to change the 2 cups of water on the pulpit. It was a very simple job but also very easy to forget about. If not done, it will cause embarrassment. Perhaps the cups of water were changed on Wednesday night but you forgot to change the water on Friday; if the speaker on Wednesday night did not drink the cup of water but the speaker on Friday wants to drink that water, you will feel very paiseh because you remembered that you did not change the water.

Though it is a very simple task, do we do it faithfully? We may think that whether the speaker drinks the water or not does not affect the way he speaks. Most speakers do not drink the water, but when does he need to drink the water? It would be when the person gets a sore or dry throat; that would affect the speaker/interpreter. Though this work of refilling the water is not direct service to someone, it directly affects the service and delivery of the sermon.

Let us start serving from these small things and then progress to work that has more to do with people. These are works we should look forward to and admire. This is because this form of work directly affects people and the church.

Now, we are unable to return to church and hence the work of cleaning, for instance, is not done. This cleaning work does not affect our online services but those that will affect our online services would be the speakers. If we are unable to go to church, what will affect the believers? We say that we have not gone to church for 4 months, so perhaps there is an impact on some. However, if we do some analysis, many believers only come to church on Sabbath afternoon for about 2 hours. If we add it up, will these hours add up to over 24 hours over the span of the past 4 months? Hence, to them, there is little or no difference to their lifestyle.

What kind of work can we do if not for going to church?

1. The work of caring
   We can do the work of caring because this work is not limited to going to church. There are many online platforms in which we can communicate with people to care for them. All the more, we can now leave the house; we can visit this person with 4 other people, or dine with 4 other people. This is work (caring) that can be done outside church and is irregardless of whether or not we go to church. This is a work we must all yearn to do; that is the work that directly serves people.

2. The work of evangelism
   In the speaker’s recent sermon, he talked about how Paul was able to preach in jail. What about us? It depends on whether we are moved to take up this work.

3. The work of visiting younger brethren
   This is something we can all do. Some are specially given the responsibility of caring; RE teachers, fellowship leaders, etc. These people are given the responsibility by the church to pastor various groups of people. Whether or not we are able to go to church, this is a work we must all do.

However, not everyone is a RE teacher or fellowship leader. But we all have friends of our own age. We can first express our care and concern for this group of friends; perhaps some of our friends may not be so strong in their faith. For those who are older with a foundation in your faith, you must then do the work of caring for those younger; to be an older brother or sister to mentor them.

It has been mentioned before that the younger generations these days do not care so much about the church, they are becoming detached from the church (probably those below 20s). As older youths, we must mentor them, if not, 10 years later, there will be no youth group. This work is very difficult for us to do because it requires time and effort. But how many of us are willing to spend that time to accompany the younger ones? Many of us are content with spending time with our own friends. If our friends have such needs, it would be good but are we also able to see the needs of those younger than us? As older brothers and sisters, what can we do for them? Let us not think only about our own enjoyment but also for our younger generation. If we want to talk about service, this is something we must really spend our time and effort on.

Today, we talked about service to God. It is in hopes that we have the right attitude and know where we can serve. May the Lord guide us.