Why a Spirit of Service Is so Important to God?

There was one scripture this past week that really impressed me. I was actually struck by what it said. It got my attention. It was in Revelation 22, the last chapter in the Bible. This is God's revelation of what's going to happen in the future. It's a wonderful story because then all evil has been eliminated. The new earth has been recreated, and that new Jerusalem has come with God the Father that finally is going to dwell with these spirit-being humans because they're not going to be physically flesh and blood.

They're going to be transformed into glorious spirit beings, superior to angels. I mean, you talk about zipping through galaxies and the universe. You're going to enjoy that with your grandkids one day. You're going to be able to travel at the speed of thought, and you will have a divine nature which you will never want to sin or do harm or do any damage. God's family will spread out in this vast universe that he created. You know, so far the largest telescopes extending outward, they have not reached the edge of the universe.

So far they have calculated that there are 300 billion stars just in our galaxy and around 200 billion galaxies in the universe. That's a lot of territory God built, and they calculate just in the Milky Way galaxy there are about 10 billion planets that could one day be inhabited. But you see, we're not ready. We can't even control this little earth. I mean, human beings could blow themselves up if somebody started pushing some buttons around, right?

We're not ready, but God is preparing human beings to be part of that marvelous family. He knows what he's doing. He hasn't made a mistake with us. We have enormous human potential, but it's not going to be realized in this life. We understand that, too. And so if we turn to Revelation, chapter 22, boy, I could tell you a lot more about that universe.

I just learned such an incredible new understanding that the latest mapping of the universe that they have done. There's an array of telescopes, and they've mapped out the known universe. And guess what? The scientists say this is not a random universe. It's not like everything is scattered around randomly.

No, everything is designed, and the whole universe is spread out in a very orderly way. And the galaxies are formed into clusters of galaxies that are spherical in their shape. And inside, they have the main amount of galaxies, and then the outer shell has the rest of the galaxies. And so it's all this spherical clusters of galaxies spread out in the universe. And to me, it shows that God is a God of order.

It's like big families of galaxies, and they're all grouped together in these beautiful spherical shapes that one day He's going to do something with that. And Revelation 22 is the last description of what God is going to do. He hasn't told us too much because He wants to surprise us with the details, but this is what it says in Revelation 22, verses 1 and 3.

John is receiving a vision of that future. He's looking at it as if it appeared at His time, but He's looking at it as a vision in His mind. It says, and He showed me a pure river of water of life. This is New Jerusalem. Clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and the Lamb. God the Father and Jesus Christ at His right hand. In the middle of its street and on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, and each tree yielding its fruit every month.

This is the symbol of God giving eternal life to human beings. Remember how He offered it to Adam and Eve? They decided to go their own way with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But the tree of life is the one that's going to triumph at the end. We will always be reminded of that. We'll even be able to take and pluck and be refreshed by it. It says, the leaves of the tree were for the healing.

The term here is actually the word comes from therapeutic, therapeos in the Greek, which means refreshing and restoring. So it's going to stimulate a person. It's going to give them joy and refreshment. It says, And there shall be no more curse. There won't be sin. There won't be evil. But the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it. And what will those Spirit-born servants do? And his servants shall serve him. These are God's marching orders.

The terms here again for servants is dulos, which means voluntary service. Committed to voluntary service, letreos, is service and worship toward God, but not out of compulsion. It is a voluntary commitment, because in a family, that's a way you do. You know, I don't go around obligating my children to love me, right? No, it's something natural. You take care of them. You love them. They will love you back. That's the type of relationship God wants with us, of a parent. He's the Father. Jesus Christ is our older brother. They've done so much for us, and we're going to be able to do something for them, too. We're going to be able to serve them. And so I was struck with that. My question, which entered my mind this week, was, why would service to God and others be so important that it would be described in the Bible as being the ultimate reward? Does that sound stimulating? Oh, you're going to get to serve God forever. Does that turn you on? A lot of people say, no, really. I'd rather I just have a good time, right? Don't give me responsibilities. It's kind of like this Valhalla that the Vikings had, or this Arab system of being in paradise with 72 virgins and just living it up. No, that's not what God has in mind at all. No, it's serving Him and Jesus Christ as they serve us in this family relationship. So for the rest of the message, the purpose of it is to give you six reasons why the spirit of service is so important to God and it should be to us.

And how we can apply it today in our lives. So I'd like to go over six reasons why the spirit of service is so important to God that He says this is the ultimate reward. This is the greatest thing I can give you. More than wealth or power or riches or whatever. No, He says this is the greatest gift I can give you. Ah, but it's not this concept of service that humans have where you come and you have to serve in a company and you work there. Are you really thrilled and happy? Well, it's a living, right? Usually a person doesn't say, oh, I'm so thrilled. Oh, I'm so happy. I can't wait to get to work every day. No, it's kind of tedious. See, human beings don't have the same attitude of service that God has. And so I'd like to give you the six reasons from the biblical perspective of why service is the greatest thing that God can give us.

Let me give you the first reason. There is so much left to learn and to grow.

Brethren, we have no idea how much more we can learn to grow in knowledge and grace. I mean, it's like we're little ants in comparison to a human being. What we know now is so insignificant to what we will one day understand. And that's part of what a servant of God does. He gets trained by God. He's going to really make something out of us that we can't do on our own.

So, let's notice the Scripture in Isaiah 11. Isaiah 11 verses 8 and 9.

This is a picture of God's kingdom. When Christ comes back, see all of this terrible situation that we see in the world now that's very depressing. A lot of it. No, there's a lot going on wrong. But you know what? Christ is coming to straighten it out. No human being can do this. No world government can do this. No president or anybody can do it. Christ is going to do it. And here he describes, when Christ comes back, Isaiah 11 verse 8 and 9, he talks about the nursing child, a little infant, shall play by the cobra's hole.

And the ween child shall put his hand in the viper's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain. So God says all the animals are going to be tamed.

All the animals are going to be changed. They're going to be vegetarians. They're not going to have to eat each other. It says that the lion will eat straw like the ox. See the bigger teeth and all of these incisors that the animals have today. All of those are going to be changed. You're going to look at that lion. It's going to be like a big kitten that you're going to be able to get in his bed and be with them. And they'll just play just like a little domestic cat. And all of the animals you're going to be able to pet them. That's why it says here even the baby that doesn't know any better. That's crawling around. It sticks its hand into a hole. And what happens? There's a vegetarian snake. Yeah. I remember it goes back in time when I used to live in Miami, Florida. And we had a garter snake, which was a little pet snake. We had a little green snake and we'd have it. And guess what? One day it got out of the cage and we were looking desperately for it. We couldn't find that garter snake anyplace. And then my mom went outside and she got she grabbed the gate to open it. And guess what? That garter snake was on the gate. And so we heard the scream and we said, Mom found the snake! But you see, that's just a nice domestic snake. And they can be fun to be around if they are cute and they're not going to do you any harm. So we see here, but the latter statement of Isaiah 11 verse 9, it says, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. So in God's kingdom, it says the knowledge of God's way and understanding. I mean, this covers the physical knowledge, spiritual knowledge.

Everybody's going to have access to all of this knowledge. And what does God compare it? He compares it to the depth of the ocean. The deepest of the oceans on this earth are in the Pacific area close to the Philippines called the Mariana Trench. It is seven miles deep. Can you imagine seven miles? How long does it take you to drive seven miles on a freeway? It's a long ways. Well, just think, if you were driving from the surface of the ocean there, it would take you like driving for seven minutes or so. If you're driving 60 miles an hour, it would take you like seven minutes just to get to the bottom. And God compares it to the wealth of knowledge that we will have accessible. You talk about having fun. We're not going to have schools where people just have to sit in a desk. We're going to be out there in the open. Okay, today you're going to learn everything about a tree. And you're going to understand how to make the tree. You're going to learn to sell your nature. It's going to be like having Legos, but actual cells building things up. Boy, wouldn't that be great? You can get to build your own tree. You don't have to go and pick one up. You'll do it, and it'll be according to your personality and flowers that you'd like to design. See, God's nature is to give and to share. And so, of course, one of the things human beings need more than anything is the knowledge of God's ways of how He does things. So we can learn. We have to keep improving, and the spirit of service means putting it in what we learn into practice. See, it's not just head knowledge. It's also applying it. And we're going to learn how to truly serve people as God the Father and Jesus Christ do. Isn't that one of the greatest goals a person can have? It's the same way. I can do things just like Jesus Christ did. I can have that love, that compassion, that patience. I can help others like He did. So actually, God the Father and Jesus Christ are reproducing themselves in human beings. Genesis 1, 26, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. And so it's a long process from flesh and bone to spirit.

But somewhere along the line, we're going to want to do things God's way and not our way to learn the true knowledge of God's ways. And by the way, it is going to take patience. We have to unlearn so many wrong ideas. And then we start filling them with the right ideas. See, you cannot live God's ways living in falsehoods following lies that man and Satan perpetrate. They spread out. No?

We have to do it God's way with God's truth. That's why we meet on the Sabbath day. Why? Because it's the fourth commandment. You know, there are only 10 that He gave, and He didn't forget one.

If you follow nine, that's not good enough for God. You're still breaking one of them. It's like when you're driving a car. You can say, oh, well, I don't speed. Oh, I am careful when I switch lanes.

But you know what? I love to run stop signs. Well, is that going to get you somewhere? You're going to have a wreck. It's the same way. Oh, I love to honor my father and mother. Oh, yeah, I'm not going to kill anybody. Oh, I'm not going to steal. But I'll go ahead and skip the Sabbath day. I'll work on that day. I'm sure God can forgive me. After all, I'm not doing any killing, and I'm not cursing or anything. See, it doesn't work that way because God's mind includes the 10. It's a package deal.

That's why James says you break one. It's like breaking all of them. You're going to get penalized when you go before the court with a judge, and he says, this is the infraction. You're running stop signs. And I say, well, sir, I don't speed. And I'm careful when I'm passing others, and I'm respecting everybody. I just have a problem with stop signs. Well, God's going to say, well, you know, I'm going to find you like I would for any of the other ones. It's the same way. It's a package deal because God knows that is good for us. Notice in 2 Peter 2, verses 17 and 18, Peter exhorted us.

2 Peter 3, 17. It says, you therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware, lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and forever. Amen. So you see, Jesus Christ is coming not only to govern the world, He's coming to educate the world. How would you like to have Him as a mentor to guide us? Wouldn't be the greatest thing to have Him as our teacher. Well, that's what He's going to do. He's going to impart knowledge, but we have to have that thirst and hunger for righteousness sake. If we don't feel a need, if we don't feel a hunger, if we feel we're just fine as it is, God can accept me just as I am. We're very wrong. See, we have to be improving, just like you do in a pupil in school. You can't be going to first grade and then jump over to fourth grade and say, well, I still only have a first day, first year education, first grade. If you're in fourth grade, you have to grow and get to that level of knowledge. It's the same way. God expects us to grow in grace and knowledge.

And that's not just for a short while. That is continuously. Christianity is a continuing educational experience. We have to continue with our education. Never be tired. We can always improve. The second reason is that this spirit of service should be so satisfying and rewarding, knowing you are helping someone else and not just yourself.

That's the spirit of God the Father and Jesus Christ. They were more concerned about us than they were of themselves. Notice in Philippians chapter 2, Philippians chapter 2, notice the mindset of Jesus Christ, why He was willing to sacrifice Himself for us. Philippians chapter 2, in verses 3 through 11, this is the description of the spirit of service in Jesus Christ. And by the way, He's a reflection of God the Father. God the Father is the same way.

It says in verse 3, Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than Himself. As you grow spiritually, this becomes more and more a reality. The less you think of self, the more you think of others.

Verse 4, Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. What was just described indicated how Jesus thought and acted. He goes on to say, Who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God? In other words, He could have kept that equality, never lowering Himself. He had no compulsion to do it, and yet He was willing to give it up, to sacrifice for us. That was a great calling that He had. Continuing on, it says, But made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant. See, here's that spirit of service.

The term again is doulas, which is a voluntary taking up the service, not through compulsion. Nobody forced Him. He took the form of a bondservant, and coming in likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even to the death of the cross, the most ignominious and terrible way of dying. And yet He said, If this is what it takes, I will do it for each one of us, because He died for each one of us. Even if we were the only person on earth, our sins would still condemn us, and the only way we could have gotten redeemed and saved would have been if He would have died. So that's why we call Him personal Savior. It's not about others. It's about me. Boy, do I get to apply His sins to my life?

I mean, His forgiveness of sins to my life. Yes. So that's what is important here. Going on, it says, Therefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, which means people lived in caves underneath the ground in those days, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So again, that spirit of service was perfected to that point. And of course, being the greatest servant, He's also going to be the greatest teacher. And it should be thrilling to be part of Christ's team, to be educated and trained under Him. I've always thought that if a person ever gets a chance to be under the tutelage of a master teacher, take advantage of it. I had a chance to study under a master teacher in a course that was given. And I remember talking to my boss at the time who was in charge of the Spanish apartment, and it was pretty expensive, and I was thinking, is it worth it? And he said, it is worth it because he wrote the textbook that you're going to get. And of course, there are these master teachers that you can learn so much more. I'm reading a book now by Stephen Meyer called The Return of the God Hypothesis. To me, he's a master teacher. I don't want to finish reading the book.

It's so good. I don't want it to ever finish because what he gives you is so superior to what you normally get. But how can you compare these men to Jesus Christ? You get to train and gain the knowledge, the skills, the experience. And shouldn't that be, as it says here, such a satisfying and rewarding? They told you, you're going to be able to work under this master teacher for a thousand years in the millennium. He's going to supervise and guide and perfect you. Either that, or do you just want to have fun? Do you just want to go like a Disneyland? Go up and down roller coasters for a thousand years and have fun everywhere else? No, it gets boring after a while. But not this, not this because you are under a master tutelage of Jesus Christ. Notice what it goes on to say in Matthew chapter 20. See, he trained his disciples. They became master teachers under his tutelage.

Matthew chapter 20 verse 25.

And we've been discussing in Pastor's Club. We have a speech club, and one of the things that pastors bring out is, it's good for people. Give them time to look it up for themselves in the Bible. Not just read it summarily. It goes in one ear, goes out the other. No, have a person look at it like here in Matthew 20 and verse 25. Jesus said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them. They're in charge. They've got the police, the army behind them. They've got a lot of ways to have you have to obey them. You can end up in jail if you don't do that. See, and they lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Now, you're going to use the power of the law and of the club, if necessary. Yet, Jesus said, it shall not be so among you. That's not the way Christ wants us to govern the church. Not with intimidation, not with threats, not with clubs, but with the spirit of service. He says, but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant, and whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. So again, what a blessing! The spirit of service should be very satisfying, and we should be grateful that God is calling us to serve in his coming kingdom. That's what we are training for here. This is a school of training. If you want to be a future priest and ruler in God's kingdom, it is. This is the development of people here. We are all learning to serve as Jesus and God the Father did. Let's go to the third reason. Now, service is not something just duty-bound that can be tedious or no. This type of spirit of service is enjoyment and fun. When you have the right heart, it's not hard to do it. It's not tedious at all. Why would you have that enjoyment and fun?

Because it's like a family. When you're together in a family, everybody's helping each other.

You don't have to be forced. And it's fun to be around people that are helping and serving each other. You serve with a smile, even if it is difficult at times. And it can be downward unpleasant, but you still do it. It's a commitment to serve God in this way. And believe me, we get so much more out of helping someone else than helping ourselves. Instead of the spirit of take and get, the spirit of give and share. It works wonderful once you start in that mindset.

We were placed on this earth to learn how to serve one another and serve God above all, because He's done so much for us. Notice in Hebrews 12, it tells us a little bit about what Jesus was thinking about when He was being sacrificed on that stake. In Hebrews 12, verse 1, it says, Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which is easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance a race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before Him. There was no joy in what He was going through, but there was a joy. Look what I'm going to do for all my future brothers and sisters. They're going to be able to be part of the kingdom. We're going to be able to carry out this plan of salvation. So my death is going to mean they're going to have a chance to be part of our family, God's family and Christ's family. He said He endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

So we should look at that spirit of service as a privilege. No, I feel privileged.

I'm not worthy to be called a minister or a pastor. I feel privileged. It's a wonderful opportunity God has given me to serve others, to wash the feet of others, to help them in their lives, improve their lives, strengthen the faith. That's a privilege. I could never think of something more blessed than to do something like that for others, and I feel very undeserving of it, but I'm very appreciative. I'm not going to take it for granted, believe me. The fourth reason why a spirit of service is so important is that there are so many challenges and adventures that await us once we become part of God's team. A spirit of service will always fill the time in a worthwhile way, especially in God's kingdom. We will never have time to be bored. Do you like to be bored? Do you like to just sit around wasting time? Not much going on? Pretty miserable.

I remember I went through that period as a young kid where vacation time in school, and I didn't have anything else to do, and it was terrible. I ate and watched TV, and it took me like three years to put all the weight away. I had to run around the track after that. I'm thinking, never again do I want to go through a period where I just didn't do anything productive.

I was only like 10 years old, but still it traumatized me to that time. And I hate feeling bored. In God's kingdom, we're not going to ever have that feeling. God says, my son or my daughter, you are ready for this next challenge, and I know you can do it, and I know you can serve this many more people now. You can grow here. You can improve their lives.

Well, that's what God is all about, sharing His power, His wisdom, His essence with us. Notice, in 2 Corinthians 3, just jot it down if you'd like. 2 Corinthians 3 verse 15. I'll read it real quickly because I'm running out of time. In verse 15, it says, but even to this day when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart, talking about the Jewish people. They don't understand the spiritual dimension. It's like there was a veil over them when they read the Scriptures. Now the Lord is the Spirit, talking about Christ, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Freedom from lies, freedom from error, and there is liberty to follow God. But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. Yeah, we go from one glorious achievement to another glorious achievement. Always these new challenges will come up. We'll always be excited about that. And that takes us to the fifth reason, and that is it develops such depth of loving relationships. When you serve and sacrifice others, you can really get to know them better, and they will appreciate that. See, it's not about us. It's about you. It's how we can help you improve your life. Again, it tells us in Galatians 4.13. Galatians 4.13.

How we are to serve one another. Verse 13 of Galatians 4, it says, let's see, I think it's... Oh, I'm sorry, it's chapter 5.13. It says, For you, brethren, have been called to liberty, only do not use liberty as an opportunity for their flesh, but through love serve one another. So what is the motivating principle? Love, and then serving one another. There's no more gratifying thing in this life that we can have. And the last reason is that our improvement should never end. Our motto should be, we can do better. We can better ourselves through the help of God, even Christ learned by his spirit of service and obedience to the very end. You can jot this down and read it later, Hebrews 5, 5 through 10, where it says, even though he was a son, he learned through obedience.

There was another dimension added to him that he had not experienced. And so it says he learned because of that experience. Well, we have the same type of experiences that we can learn from.

Now, all these blessings will come because you were willing to put your interests in second place and the interests of others first. Now, how can we apply this in our lives?

First, look for the opportunities to serve wherever they come, whether it is to God or whether it's in our marriage where we can improve our spirit of service or toward our family, children, how we can have a better spirit of service or to others. Just whatever adds the opportunity. Secondly, do it with the right motivation to serve and glorify God and not self. That is a big one because some people, yes, they'll help you, they'll serve you, but it's for their advantage, for their advancement. That's not the way God's way is. You're not doing it for anything you can get out of it. You're doing it because you want to please God first. And thirdly, pace yourself about serving. Avoid burnout. Mentor others. Take turns because just like a lifeguard, you can't just be out here saying, oh, I'm going to serve people here. And, here's another one that fell on in the pool and jump in and, oops, somebody else's fell on this side. Pretty soon, you're going to both drown. But what you can do is tend them to pull. Have them grab it. If they're in the pool, they're in trouble, have them grab the pole and then you pull them out.

Don't do for others what they can do for themselves. You can spoil a person if you don't discern between serving a person for their benefit and sometimes you can serve a person for their detriment. It's not the right time. You're spoiling them. You're doing for them what they need to do. So that's a word of caution that we all have. So I hope now, as we go back to the initial question there in Revelation 22, why is serving God be so important that it would be described in the Bible as the ultimate reward? I hope we can now better understand why having a spirit of service is so important to God and it should be to us as well. The essential part is that God is love and He has an enormous spirit of service as shown by what He and His Son have done for us. So as God's children, let's put all of this into practice.