But it must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be a slave to all. For even the son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life-a ransom for many.”
Mark 10:42-45 HCSB

Many of you reading this may not remember the old days when there were actually full-service gas stations. You could pull in and an attendant would fill your car with gas and might even clean your windshield or check your oil level for you. I believe in our town there are one or two of the older stations downtown that still do this. But today almost everything is self-service. We pump our own gas. We check out our own groceries. We fix our own drinks at many food places. We are used to serving ourselves.

The problem in today’s society is that we tend to want to be served or to serve ourselves, but my friend that should never be the mindset of a Christian. We weren’t put on this earth to be served or to serve ourselves. We were put on this earth to serve God first and others second. When we spend all of our time serving ourselves it can cause great problems in our lives. It throws things out of balance for the way God intended for us to be. It causes things that God hates like pride. It causes us to be self-centered. God never intended for us to be that way. He created us to be in fellowship with Him. We cannot be self-centered and have a good relationship with our Lord and Savior. It just doesn’t work that way.

Last night our pastor did a wonderful sermon about God’s salvation-past, present and future. He said that when we get saved, we have three enemies, the world, the devil and ourselves. Before we are saved, we are used to serving ourselves. If someone told you, you were your own God you would probably be offended. But when we serve ourselves it’s as if we are worshiping ourselves. It’s as if we become our own God. We were created to serve Him and often we do that through serving others.

I challenge you to look back on the last week. Did you do anything to serve someone else or has it been all about you? Did you do anything to serve God, or has it been all about you? You may read this and think, “You don’t know what I’ve been going through?” And you’re right, I have no idea what you have been going through. But whatever you are going through, I know that the best way for you to get through it is to serve God. Matthew 6:33 tells us to first seek the kingdom God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Simply put, when we serve God, He takes good care of us. He provides all we need. We should make it our business to serve Him, and He will take care of our business. We will have no worries.

Maybe you have been serving yourself for so long, you don’t know where to start. A good starting place is at your church. If you don’t have a church, find a church where the pastor is not afraid to preach the truth from God’s word. Find a church that provides ample opportunity to study God’s word. And find a church that is not self-serving. Find a church that serves the community around them. Become a part of that service. Attend services and serve others through the ministries in your local church. There are also food banks and other community services that can always use volunteers.

Another way to serve God and serve others is to simply look around you and ask God to place people in your path that need your help. When we are busy serving ourselves, we are often too busy to even notice the needs of those around us. If you are serving yourself, you labor in vain. No good can come from it. We are told in Colossians 3:23-24 that whatever we do, we should work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord we will receive the inheritance as our reward. We are serving Jesus Christ, not ourselves.

If you have been living a full-service life, waiting to be served or a self-service life isn’t it time that changed? Serve God today. You will be so glad you did.

Have a great day!