Title: “Serve the Lord: The imperative for the family under God.”
Man is God’s method: the church and society are looking for newer methods, God is looking for broken men.
What kind of men and women is God looking for? God has many tasks that need to be done on earth. Who will volunteer to help Him accomplish His desires, his many projects and assignment on earth.
Who has the passion to join in the work that is so uppermost in the heart of God?
In Isaiah it is written,
“Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.” And he said, “Yes, go, and say to this people, ‘Listen carefully…,
Isaiah 6:8-9 NLT.
God is looking for quality people with with humble character, completely broken and sold out and selfless, with a burning passion and desire to employ into His earthly workforce in order to accomplish His numerous programs that form part, and to accomplish His divine purpose on earth. Eg., bringing His Heavenly kingdom’s prototype on, the healing of the sick, the teaching of children in the family and in the society, the guiding of young girls and boys to become better people ready for the Master’s use on earth.
That is the imperative, the compulsory burden placed on any individual and family that is under God, to serve God by being a co-worker with Christ, to realize that agenda of God on earth.
God is looking for those who will serve to bring about good governance in the society so that His principles and will shall be done on earth.
Remember Christ Jesus prayed that ‘let your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven’, meaning that God’s will is not currently being done on earth as it should be except we pray it down. This is the desire of God that His will should be done on earth as it is done in heaven.
The question is, who will serve the Lord? Who will work the work of serving God to fulfill His divine will?
What does it mean to work the work of God?
In Joshua 24, the Jews were called to choose whether to serve God or not. Serving God those days meant not worshipping Idols, fighting the wars against the enemies of God the way God prescribed to them, etc.
But it appears that under the dispensation of Christ Jesus, the operating system of serving God has being upgraded.
It may still be that all the above is present but new principles and practices have been introduced.
In John 6 v 28-29 the Jews asked Jesus, ‘what shall we do to work the work of God? He responded and said, ‘believe in the person sent by God’.
Jesus was sent by God and the Jews didn’t believe in Him. Because of their unbelief, they couldn’t do the work of God. They could not understand what God was doing per time, consequently, in their ignorance, they killed The First Begotten of The Father, The God they claim to be Their Father!
But in the above passage, we see that Jesus said that to do the work of God, that is to serve God, we must believe in the Person sent by God.
The Person sent by God in this our dispensation is the Holy Spirit.
This begs another question, “do we believe The Holy Spirit?”
What is your relationship with the Holy Spirit whom God has sent to you to dwell in you?” Do you know that the work of God on earth today is under the project management and direction of the Holy Spirit?
The work that you are doing for God today is it just because you feel like doing it or was it authorized by the Holy Spirit from God and assigned to you?
The burnout we have today in the ‘service of God is because we don’t serve as directed and dictated by the Holy Spirit. We serve mostly because we want to not because we asked the Holy Spirit or we are expressly directed by Him.
Just like Abraham walked with God and followed after what God wanted him to do and the Bible said ‘Abraham believed God and it was recorded for him as righteousness’ Rom 4v3 and Gal. 3 v6.
The same way during the dispensation of Jesus Christ, He told the Jews that to do the work of God is to believe Him whom God have sent. John 6: v28-29.
Therefore, in this our dispensation which is under the 3rd person of the Godhead, co-equal with God, the serving of God must be to believe and follow the Holy Spirit whom God sent.
Because to believe the Holy Spirit is to wait on Him, to fellowship with Him and to hear from Him the assignment God has for you as an individual and as a church.
One can start from studying the scripture to know and to do the generic will of God as contained in Scripture. As you do that, the Holy Spirit will start building in passion in you (because any work done for God that has no passion is useless) and will be observing how you are responding to that building or equipping. He will try to see how committed and selfless and humble you are and your response before coming to work with you, ‘because it is God that works in us to both to will and to do His perfect will’. Phil 2. V 13
God starts everything from the family. He created Adam and Eve to form a family and from there the earth multiplied into numerous and uncountable families. Family is a place to nurture and train the children into becoming better people capable of being used for greater responsibilities both in the church and in the society.
The family under God has a compelling mandate and responsibility to serve God by shining the Light of God’s Character and Personality to the world.
But before any family member will go out to shine this Light of God to the world, his or her life must have been shaped, moulded in the family and prepared for the good work.
Let us conclude with this powerful instruction from the book of second Timothy:
“In a wealthy home some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use. If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work.”
2 Timothy 2:20-21 NLT.
The various programs that God is running on earth require men and women who are deliberate to live by the lifestyle of love, kindness, showing humility, enduring insults, are meek in dispositions, empathetic to others, bold and compassionate, showing courage in the face of danger, listening to the guidance and understanding the leadership and of the Holy Spirit, praying constantly and studying the Bible effectively, etc. when we do these things, we become instruments of honor in the Hand of the master, effective for every good use. And as usual every task of God is not without reward. Exodus 23 v 25-26 and Isaiah 45 V 19.
Our God is an Awesome God.
Being a message preached by Evangelist (Barr) Patrice EbereChukwu Akwara.
Emmanuel Anglican Church Idu
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