The Simplicity of Service

Simplicity. Nice word. Solutions. Another good word. Simple solutions. Put it together. A good phrase. But you know the story of mankind has been a story of neither. You think about it, you read about it, you observe it. Neither simplicity nor solution. You notice how man likes to complicate things. Man likes to make things complex. I picked up on that long, long ago, even as a young person. It almost seems to be a certain vanity to it. It's like a professor, if he stands up and he's, quote, speaking over everybody's head and giving answers, and the students are sitting there looking at each other and saying, what are the questions? A certain special vanity to it, a certain intellectual appeal, a certain interest, desire to make things difficult. You know, I've often thought, like with mechanics, why couldn't you standardize so many things and have fewer tools and simpler tools and parts and all of that? I think someday there will be, yes, but there's certainly not now. And as far as complicating things and making things complex, man has certainly succeeded in that. And yet, the solutions to the problems lie within a certain measure of simplicity, a certain simplicity that's uncomplicated. A simplicity that Paul referred to a certain way, and it's in 2 Corinthians 11.3. I'm going to turn there and read it. 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 3. A simplicity that Christ referred to, Paul, by inspiration of Christ, referred to this way. He says in 2 Corinthians 3, chapter 11 and verse 3, He says, But I fear, lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from, or away from, what? The simplicity that is in Christ. The simplicity that is in Christ. Part of what that touches upon is that God is not in the business of complicating things. Only man is. Satan, man, chaos, confusion, bohue, tohue. The real solutions are actually simple things. They are things of simplicity. They are things that don't hinge on IQ. They're not dependent on IQ. They don't hinge on IQ, but on do, as in simply do. Wouldn't it be a sad thing to be able to have any understanding and pursuit truly of salvation, or growing up into the things of Christ? You had to be genius level with your IQ. You couldn't have normal, average IQ. That would be sad. Now, the things of God, the real solutions, they don't hinge on IQ. They hinge on do, simply do. You can uncomplicate. You can uncomplicate so much of life simply through the simplicity of Christ. What He stands for is simple. It's not difficult to understand. It may be difficult in some cases, depending on what it is, to apply. It may not be championed by your peers, but what He stands for is simple. And again, the challenge simply lies in doing it, and doing it starts with seeing it and accepting it. And when you do that, when I do that, when you do that, proper simplicity sets in, and you begin going against what complicates your life. What is it that complicates people's lives? Well, a couple of things that complicate people's lives is, number one, the selfish grain of human nature. Think about it. How many problems and situations are generated by that selfish grain that runs through human nature?

People exercising that selfishness of human nature? And boy, can it cause some bo-hoo and toe-hoo and all of that? Some chaos and confusion. And along with that, the grain of society as it is set and stimulated by and through Satan.

Because Satan doesn't want things simple. He wants them complicated. He wants that which, again, will generate chaos and confusion and problems, especially in whatever way he can that the solutions are lost or not seen or not appreciated.

Simplicity in Christ has to do...let's just take that phrase for a moment. Simplicity that is in Christ. The simplicity that you're going to find in Christ. So if you're talking about simplicity in Christ, it has to do with what you find in Him and what you do in Him. And one of the things you find in Him is this. Very important word. You find this in Him. Service. Service. Very important word. Simple, unadorned, unadulterated service. And the service you find in Him is service out of a serving mind.

It's out of a serving mind. Because, see, the service you find in Christ that's out of a serving mind, it's service for services' sake.

It's service with a mindset on others. It's service that's rich and safe and satisfying. And in a supremely magnified way, this is the lesson of Jesus Christ. In a very supremely magnified way, this is the lesson of Jesus Christ. And it so captures, so fully fits into that statement, the simplicity that is in Christ. It's what I call the simplicity of service. If you like a title that will serve as the title and the subject, the simplicity of service. It's not complicated. It's not hard to grasp.

See, Christ introduced a whole new concept of power and service. He introduced a whole new concept of power and service.

And it is simple, very simple. Number one, to seek to help people, to supply their needs, to be concerned for their welfare.

Very simple, not complicated. Simply to seek to help people, to supply their needs, to be concerned for their welfare. And number two, to use whatever power at your disposal for such ends. Not to strive for power and rule to get advantage over them. History is full of humans striving for power and rule. We've seen a lot of that in 2020 in this nation. It's full of people striving for power and rule in order to get advantage over others. It's still going on, of course. See, man has never been concerned with the development of others but of usage and abuse and enslavement and oppression. That's history's record. That's the record today. I mean, if you scan the world and you keep up with everything that's going on, you see that same old pattern. It hasn't changed. Not for 6,000 years. It hasn't changed. Man has never been concerned with the development of others but of usage, abuse, enslavement and oppression. And whoever has gained power has used it in that manner and direction. And again, you can make statements like I just made and then you can go find all the support you want for those statements in the annals of history as well as current news. People wanting to be top dog. People pushing on, stepping on others to get higher. Yeah, I'm going up the ladder. If I step on so-and-so, that will get me another rung up. I'm going to climb the ladder and I don't care how many people I have to push out of the way or step on to get there. Selfishness, get, ego, vanity, pride, self-aggrandizement, preeminence, position. It's all part of the record. And of course, there are those occasional breaths of fresh air. Yes, there are. Those breaths of fresh air that are sprinkled in many numerous little ways throughout. I remember back in the 1984 Olympics, the USA's women's basketball team, there were twins trying to make the basketball of the Olympic basketball team, ladies. And one twin made the team and the other one didn't make the team. And the US team, women's basketball, they won gold, Olympic gold. And the twin that was on the team that won a gold medal, she gave her gold medal to her twin sister, who didn't make the team. And you know, those kind of things that are like a little breath of fresh air, yes. And there are those breaths of fresh air. But we're talking about the atmosphere, the air, the operation. Overall, the way it's been with man. You know, in God's way, in God's kingdom, increase promotion for one in power means greater benefit to those around him. You can think about how opposite that is to now.

In God's way, God's kingdom, increased promotion for someone in power just simply means greater benefits to those around him. That's how it translates. Power and greater development of one's talents and abilities is to increase your opportunities to be benefiting to others. Again, that is a spiritual thing. That's not the natural human nature thing. Power and greater development of one's talents and abilities, humanly, is just to get more for you and to move you on up and move you on along, hang the rest. But power and greater development of one's talents and abilities is to increase opportunities of benefiting others. God has a totally different view on it and take on it. God gives us talent and ability and opportunity.

Are there any of us that God hasn't given us some talent, some ability, some opportunity? No, He's given all of us some measure of talent and ability and opportunity. What He gives us and what He gives to human beings just by the fact that we're human and certain talents and abilities and opportunities are part of our makeup being human, not just for ourself, but for use in regards to others' benefit and benefiting others. And, of course, here's one of the great beauties of God's way.

You cannot exercise yourself in a serving way to benefit others and not receive some kind of reciprocal benefit back. Service makes our talents and abilities available to others of use to others. I ask the question, what good is a talent or an ability or an opportunity if it's not used? I mean, if it just sat there, it's kind of like that guy with the one talent who just buried it. Just buried it.

Didn't use it. No increase. No growth. Just buried it. Christ comes back and He says, here it is, Lord. There's no gain with it. There's no benefit from You having left it with me. I simply am giving You back what You gave, but there's no increase with it.

There's no profit. What good is a talent or an ability or an opportunity? I use those words because talent, ability, opportunity, they're not necessarily synonyms. They don't all mean the same thing. They can have different meanings. When you start talking about talents and abilities and opportunities, you're pretty comprehensively covering the range. But again, what good is a talent or an ability or an opportunity if it's not used? You will either selfishly hold it, and this again goes back to the human scene, you'll either selfishly hold it and use it only for yourself, or you will share it with others.

If you call twelve men, if you say, Peter, follow me. John, James, I want you, you follow me. I'm choosing you. You follow me. Philip, you know, and run on down the line. If you did as Christ, and Christ certainly did this, you know, under the Father's guidance and direction, He spoke those words of those twelve that were picked. The disciples were given opportunity, weren't they? You're going to walk with the Son of God. You're going to walk with God while He's flesh and blood here.

You're going to have three and a half years. You're going to walk with Him. He's going to example the right way before you. He's going to teach you. He's going to lead you. You can ask Him any question you want. You're going to have, who knows how much time to learn from Him. You know, we say the disciples were given opportunity. Wow! That's an understatement.

And they're going to be informed in time that the third future contains sitting on thrones over the tribes of Israel. Well, the disciples were given opportunity, weren't they? Well, guess what? At first, their response was the response of man. Their response, to begin with, was human. It wasn't spiritual with the opportunity they were going to be given and the positioning that they were given just by being even... As they looked around at the multitudes and they looked around at their own families and their friends and relatives, they could look at each other and say, we're the ones that are closest to Christ.

We're the ones that are going to be right next to Him in the Kingdom. We're the ones that are going to rule with Him. They, early on, did not understand His Kingdom was coming at a later time. But the point is, all you have to do is look how at first they wanted to use it for selfish self-aggrandizement. There was nothing spiritual about the way they saw their opportunity to begin with. I'm the greatest. No, you're not I Am. No, you all aren't. We are. But eventually they saw that such was given to them to help others.

That time came, that shift occurred, they grew in that area and they came to realize. But notice Luke 22 and verse 31. So they were given opportunity and at first they wanted to use it for selfish self-aggrandizement, self-promotion. Eventually they saw that such was given to them to help others.

It finally sunk in and basically sunk in when they, quote, became converted. Notice what Christ says to Peter here in Luke 22 and verse 31. And the Lord said to Simon, the Lord said, Simon, Simon repeated his name. I wanted to make sure he had his focused attention. Listen, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I've prayed for you. I've prayed that your faith not fail and that when you are converted, when you're converted, when you have a different way of seeing things and an understanding comes and you have some realizations and you're able to capture the perspective, a spiritual perspective instead of a carnal one, and he could have said all of that, here's what I expect of you.

Strengthen your brethren. You provide a strength. You be a strength. You be utilized. And what's he talking about in a sense? Peter was naturally gifted as a leader. He was a natural leader. Peter was naturally gifted as a leader. You take what you have been given, whether we're speaking genetically, whether we're speaking of learning and education, whether we're speaking of God's education. The bottom line on it is, you, Peter, you be a strength unto your brethren. You strengthen them. It's interesting.

I think we all understand, don't we, that the word minister means to serve, to minister. People will say, well, you know, she ministered unto him, or the nurse ministered unto, or he ministered unto. It's synonymously used with the word serve. She took care of the needs. She served. He served. To minister means to serve. 1 Corinthians 16, 15. 1 Corinthians 16.

Is every single addiction bad? Well, here's an exception. I'm reading it in the King James, and I like the way the King James puts it. 1 Corinthians 16 and verse 15. Paul wrote, I beseech you, brethren, you know the house of Stephanus, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that, notice, they have addicted themselves. They've chosen an addiction. They have addicted themselves to the ministry and just put in the word for ministry their service.

They have addicted themselves to the service of the saints. They've addicted themselves to serving, is what Paul is saying. Philippians 2 and verse 20. Paul, in writing the Philippians here and mentioning Timothy, the way he words it points out something that was classic in Timothy. Philippians 2 and verse 20. He said, For I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state.

Now, we read about those who are addicted to the service of God's people. They're addicted to service. And then we read focused attention put upon something that was part of Timothy's makeup that who will naturally care for your state will naturally care for. In other words, it was second nature to Timothy. It's like second nature to him. If you're addicted to service, it's almost like service owns you. You know, an addiction is when something has come to own you. You've been made a servant or a slave of whatever that substance or that habit is.

Being addicted to service is probably about the best addiction that there is. Second nature to Timothy. See, all the position did with Timothy was to give him greater opportunity to serve and benefit others. As he was given extra responsibilities and position, all it did was to give him greater opportunity to serve and benefit others.

It's interesting. He wasn't caught up in rank. You know, when people get caught up in rank, they get rank and they smell. He wasn't caught up in rank or self-aggrandizement. He wasn't caught up in big head. It's easy to see a certain simplicity in Timothy, a simplicity of service. In fact, he even had to be cautioned about fearing and failing to properly use his office and opportunity and power to truly help others. To maybe, you know, cautioning him about not holding back because of maybe certain natural timidity he had.

I mean, there's a reason why Paul said to him what he did in 2 Timothy 1, verses 6 and 7. I mean, when we read things like this, these statements stand on their own. We process them for our learning and our growth. But we also can take from it the context in which they're said, which also adds extra learning. And you read the whole account of the two books to Timothy, the two letters.

He was a man who was given to service, to serving, and yet, in his case, certain timidities might actually hold him back from doing the full service that he actually wanted to do. And Paul told him, he says, wherefore, verse 6, chapter 1 of 2 Timothy, verse 6, Wherefore I put you in remembrance that you stir up the gift of God, which is in you by the putting on my hands, you've got God's Spirit, stir it up.

And then he tells him, look, you know, for God has not given us, therefore, Timothy's office will not give you the spirit of fear. But it's of power, and it's of love, and of a sound mind. So make foolproof of your ministry, as he later says. And he even tells him sometimes he's got to take a stronger stand. It's all in these letters. And like I said in the sermon on a true friend, talking about service to someone is not always pleasant or what they want.

Taking the keys away from someone who's in no condition to drive or refusing to give them the keys when they're in no condition to drive, that's not pleasant. That's not pleasant to the person who is trying to get the keys, even though they're in no shape to drive. And it's not pleasant for the person who won't give them the keys. But it's service, and it's serving them, and it's thinking of their well-being. Here's part of the simplicity. Of course, I'm focusing, yes, on simplicity, and I'm focusing on service. And that's why I say the simplicity of service. Here's part of the simplicity.

There is no law in existence, and never will be, against our giving of our time and our talents and our energies. There's no law against, and you never have to worry about there ever being a law against the giving of our time and our talents and our energies. See, the law of the universe, the law of love, because love, the law of love, is outgoing concern. It's giving. It's the give way. The law of the universe, the eternal law of the universe, the law of love, is all for such.

Serving others through what you give. Serving others through what you give. Each of us has strengths. Each of us has something to offer. Each of us can make some contribution because all have at least some of talent. And some people might say, well, if I've got any talent, I have no idea what in the world it is.

I can't find it. It's buried too deep. Okay? You're thinking, aren't you? You're talking, aren't you? That means you're alive, aren't you? That means you have time. Time is opportunity to do, to serve, to give. You have energy, don't you? That person's out of time. Well, why? Well, they're dead. That person's out of energy. Well, why? They're dead. The dead have no time. They have no energy. What is life? What is our life? Frankly, it's time and energy. It's the fact that we have time and we have energy. And what we do with life, that is, with time and energy, you know, it gives us opportunity to serve. No, everybody's got some strengths.

Everybody has something to offer. Everybody can make some contribution because everybody's got some measure of talent or ability. And everybody's got some time. Everybody's got some energy. Again, these things vary, but it's a zero with nobody. It's a zero with nobody. See, what it comes down to, it's a matter of being service-minded. Clothed in such a frame of mind and looking at all the opportunities that are around. It's a way of life toward everyone else. It must become part of our way of life toward everyone else. In Philippians 2 and verse 4, Paul writes, "...look not every man on his own things..." And I will add a word there because the word clarifies what he's writing.

"...look not every man on his own things only..." Because there's nothing wrong with looking on your own things and being concerned for what is good and right and proper. "...love your neighbor as yourself..." Love your neighbor but hate yourself. That's not the commandment. Love your neighbor as yourself. It's only being responsible to properly take care of yourself. But if you're only concerned with your own self, then that shifts it into selfishness and self-centeredness and maybe just pure narcissism.

"...look not every man on his own things only, but every man also on the things of others, or that is, the concerns, the conditions, the needs of others, their welfare." A deep, abiding love and concern for people and their welfare. See, serving means simply helping others. It means focusing talents, abilities, energies into a beneficial direction and flow toward others. Talent, ability, opportunity should give us greater opportunity to be more fully involved in service to others, learning how to more fully and directly use them to the betterment of all whom we have association with.

Again, I'm talking about a mindset. This doesn't mean there are no limitations. Again, it has to do with what we have opportunity with. Yes. But think about Romans 15.1, Romans 15, verse 1. "...we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak." We vary from person to person in the things that we're strong in. We can vary from person to person in the things that we're weak in or have infirmities in. And we also, as we go through life, can have some things flipped on us to where we move from the strong in an area to the weak in an area.

So notice the approach here, the perspective in the approach. "...we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification." And edification just simply is an old King James word that means building up, promoting and building up and helping. Just like the word edifice, which means building, edifice is a building. And to edify is to build.

Opportunity to help others. I mean, we think about the sick and the afflicted. We think about the prayer requests that go out. We think about even the little program we have of sending out prayer requests through the home office. Not all prayer requests, not all prayer requests go through there or have to. Some are just, you know, they're kept local, more local.

But they go out to congregations around the world. You know, the statement in James 1.27... How many times over the years have we read this and focused on this? James 1.27. Pure religion, pure religion, and undefiled before God and the Father is this. James points out what pure religion is and unpolluted to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction. And obviously also to keep oneself unspotted from the world. But notice, he gives the answer and the first part of the answer is to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction. Why has it been sometimes?

Why is it sometimes that some people think that this is only, quote, the minister's job to do? Well, that's what the minister's supposed to do. Let's see. Is he the only one that's supposed to have pure and undefiled religion? We all are to have that. But again, service-minded. And part of the simplicity is that it is possible to approach everything you do with a serving frame of mind. And actually learn to walk your daily life in a service frame of mind.

You know, like James was talking about picking a couple of the fruits and bearing those in mind each day for helping with the growth opportunities. We can determine...there are certain perspectives of mind that we can determine to learn to walk in daily. And learning to walk in a serving frame of mind is not only one of those we can, but it is extremely important. In other words, a spirit of service that monitors, that governs, that colors everything you do.

You can apply it to your work. You can apply it to worship. You can apply it to play. You can apply it to fun and responsibility. You can apply it as the perspective you utilize, look through, as you look at your children.

And you deal with them. You can apply it...you can let that be the framework in which and how you view and deal with your mate, your coworkers on the job, your family and your friends. Again, the simplicity of serving others to help improve their happiness, their lot in life, to help make life better for them and more enjoyable, to prepare them, to ease their burdens. Service is what you do when you're motivated like God is. John 15.13. Service is what we do when we are motivated like God is. Service is what we do when we want to be motivated like God is. These disciples on this final evening with Christ while He was flesh and blood had no true idea, had no idea of what was coming the rest of that night in the next day.

They did not. Peter was one of them that had a sword and he thought something was going to be initiated to start setting up the kingdom. They had no idea what was going to happen. And Christ knew they didn't at this point. And He's making some points to them. And they could not reference it fully at this point. But then as these things began to happen and fall into place, then His statements began to fall into place more and more in their thinking and their realizations. He tells them in John 15, 13, He says, "'Greater love has no man than this, that a man laid down his life for his friends.' Before the next sunset, they were going to see Him literally lay His life down.

Not figuratively, but literally. They were going to see Him die on that rough wood for them. Even the magnitude and the fullness of it for them would not hit them fully until later. "'Greater love has no man than this, that a man laid down his life for his friends.' What more could a person do in concern for another than to die for them? We understand. I mean, you die for somebody. You've got nothing more you can give. You're dead. You gave your life. But notice with me 1 John 3, 16.

1 John 3. 1 John 3 and verse 16. Hereby perceive we, the love of God, we grasp, we understand His love, His outgoing concern toward us, for us, because He laid down His life for us. Then the corollary follows.

We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Now, John is not saying we've got to go out and look for a way that we can get ourselves killed for somebody. We've got to go find a way to literally die for them. No, that's not what he's saying. He's saying, lay down our lives for the brethren.

Think about that for a moment. What is your life made of? Your life is made of two basic things, time and energy, period. Now, you can add other things in, but even the other things you add in are connected to time and connected to energy. So when you give of your time and of your energy, which comprise your life, you're giving that much of your life to whoever it is you're serving.

You are laying down your life. And in some cases, if it were to come to the point that you literally had to give up all of your time and energy, in other words, you had to die for someone, then that would be the ultimate, yes.

But anytime you give of your time and your energies, you're laying down a portion of your life for those you're serving. You know, in a simple serving attitude, would resolve so many problems. Can you imagine infinity? Can you imagine infinity full of beings where each and every single one is totally motivated by the give way to serve and benefit others, that all contact you have in infinity with all beings is motivated and operated by that perspective, where every being you meet is out for your good, where there's total trust, there's total sharing, there's total productivity, there's total challenge in a positive direction.

And in that kind of arrangement, everyone is benefiting and benefited. It's reciprocal. And infinity of such perspective and motivation is a wonderland of such joy and magnitude and challenge and accomplishment that I think it's very hard, isn't it, for us to wrap our minds around it. And that pattern has been set by our Captain himself.

Matthew 2028. Christ said this. He said, Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, He didn't come. I didn't come to be served. But to serve, I came to serve. I came to minister and to give His life. He's speaking in the third person of Himself in that way. It's a way of speaking to really make the point. Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, to be served, but to minister to serve and to give His life for ransom, to give His life for ransom for many.

And we talk about the foot washing. We talk about Passover and we talk about the foot washing. We talk about the foot washing and messages and how you think about it. When Christ got down, got down on His knees before Peter and the others and washed their feet, that was God kneeling on that dusty floor to wash their feet.

And back if we read Philippians 2, Philippians 2, verses 5-9, we see service-mindedness. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And we read verse 4, which is one of the verses leading into it to where, look not only on your own things, be concerned not only for your own things and your own welfare, but also be concerned for the welfare of others.

That's one of the lead-in verses to Him saying, let this mind, which both reflects back on what He's just said, but also reaches forward to what is then said, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, took upon Himself the form of a servant, a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.

And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name.

And even now, as Hebrews 7.25 says, He serves, Hebrews 7.25, He serves as our High Priest, making intercession for us continuously.

But then let's stretch into forever. Look at Luke 12. Luke 12, verses 36 and 37. And this is interesting.

Luke 12. And just picking it up, verse 36, And you yourselves are like Peter, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, you men. You yourselves are like to men that wait for their Lord, when He will return from the wedding that when He comes and knocks, they may open to Him immediately.

Blessed, verse 37, blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He comes, shall find watching.

Truly, I say to you that He, the Lord, shall gird Himself and make them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them.

If you go out after services to eat somewhere, and you're shown a table, and you sit down, a waiter or a waitress will come and wait on you. Christ is putting Himself in the position of a waiter.

The same one who knelt before them to wash their feet says He will come forth and serve them. See, Christ's motive. There are things about God that the world have a hard time grasping because they are so caught up in a totally opposite attitude, view, and perspective.

But it doesn't make full sense to them. Christ's motive will always be to serve. It's that simple. The motive will never change because, see, serving never goes out of style. Never goes out of style. It's an eternal profession that never wears out. It's an eternal profession.

Being needed, being useful, being contributing, and being involved. Think about that a moment.

Being needed, being useful, being contributing, being involved adds a joy and a satisfaction that never fails.

And Christ is looking for such a wife as a help-meet. We speak of where the bride of Christ. When Eve was created as a help-meet, she was to be a perfect complementation. Not complement with an eye, but with an E. Complementation.

Fitting together, supporting system with Adam.

And in Revelation, we have the statement. I'm not turning back there, but in Revelation 19 verse 7, we have the statement that the bride has made herself ready. A true help-meet. It's a support function. We have Proverbs 31, the virtuous woman.

You read about the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31.

She is a woman who serves, and serves, and serves.

The church, the bride of Christ, is to be a virtuous woman.

A fitting companion to Jesus Christ. Like-minded.

Capabilities, qualities, energies that are clothed in service-mindedness.

That's wonderful. You know, there are some people who can't be happy unless they're serving. They're very blessed.

My mom was like that. She served. She started having to serve when she was nine years old. Serve her family fully.

She served all of her life.

It was really difficult for her when the time came that due to her health and cancer, that she could no longer serve, that she had to be served.

That was really hard for her because she was such a server and loved serving.

And it always served. Such a part of her. That to not be able to serve anymore, plus having to be served, that was difficult.

Again, there are some people who can't be happy unless they're serving. And again, that's a very blessed position to be in.

God's family is a kingdom, think of it, of serving and sharing.

That's what we're claiming we want to be a part of. A kingdom that is serving and that is sharing. And if we learn to serve and love doing it, we have a place in His family for eternity along with happiness and challenge and fulfillment, and we'll never run out of something to do.

It's fun. It's involved. It's doing. It's where the action is. It's where it's at.

You know, somewhere along the way, we learn. Sooner or later. And God is monitoring that learning. He's keeping track of that learning. He's watching it.

We learn sooner or later that the only life that is worth living, that stays continuously that way, is the one that is given away, shared, that has a serving attitude behind it. See, a lesson that will have to be learned by each of us, previous to eternal life, is that our happiness and joy are worth and our belonging are real value.

And our eternal place in God's kingdom comes through serving. And when we learn to be service-minded and we love it, you never run out of opportunity.

You have a never-ending joy and you have a continual peace and feast.

Final Scripture, Psalm 16 verse 11. As we age, as we connect more and more of life and God's Word together, as we grow in vision of what the spiritual truly is, things come together more and more and we see more and more meaning in the Scripture.

When we learn to be service-minded and love it, we have a never-ending joy. Never run out of opportunities. We have a continual peace and feast.

And so when I read, like here in Psalm 16 verse 11, you will show me the path of life in your presence.

In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand there are pleasures forevermore because learning to operate the way that God operates.

For the one who close all he does with his time, his talents and energies in a framework of service-mindedness, there will never be a lonely or boring moment in all of eternity simply because you are in step.

You are caught up with God. You are in sync with Christ. You are caught up in part of the simplicity that it is his, the simplicity of service.

For it is a pure expression of God's frame of mind, of God's state of mind, the simplicity of service.